Friday, October 19, 2012

Tour ~ We're Done by Judy Irwin



Welcome to my stop on the We're Done Tour by Judy Irwin. Brought to you by Goddess Fish Promotions.


What if turns out that YOU'RE the bully - and you didn't know it? 

Things aren't going very well for thirteen-year-old Luke Mitchell. He's been kicked out of his posh private school, Heyworth Academy; his best friend Jon has just dumped him; and the tough guys at his new school have chosen him for their next target.

For a guy who used to be the king of the campus, it's hard to adjust. He's never been on the outside before, looking in, and it feels pretty lonely. 

His upside-down world at Carlyle gives Luke a whole new way of looking at things. Can he recover from losing his school and his best friend, and find new friends and a way to fit in at Carlyle?






My Review
Have you ever been bullied? Been the bully? All of us have come into contact with some form of bullying in our lifetimes. This book has a really important message. And the good thing about this book is that you get to experience it through the eyes of the bully. This book is not "hard or dark". The bullying is rather quite calm, but still gets the point across. Not that any bullying is "calm".  I give the message 5 stars!

Now about the book. I ended up liking Luke, after he had his epiphany that bullying is wrong and that it takes on many different forms. But, I actually liked the secondary characters better. Tash, namely. She just seemed to give this character more depth. This book also brings up Cyber bullying, but never expands on it. Like I said, the message is strong, but the story wasn't for me. I would have liked to have seen more emotion from the characters. Both the bullies and victims.

1/2
It was OK!

Excerpt

"Entrez," said Monica. Luke pushed the door open. Kim and Monica lay sprawled on Monica’s bed, with the laptop and an open bag of potato chips between them.

"Check it," said Monica. "She’s trying to delete the Wall entries. It’s hilarious."

She grabbed a handful of chips, and lay back against the pillows, watching the computer screen. 

"Humiliation in realtime," said Kim. Monica laughed sharply, and chips flew out of her mouth all over the pillow. "Ew, gross!" said Kim, laughing too.

"Did you hear from Dad?" said Luke. "I haven't heard from him in a while."

"No, he's working really hard," said Monica. "Mom said he'll be on the road for a while. Why?"

"Oh, no reason. Hey, what did he say to you about this Facebook stuff?"

"Nothing, really. He didn't really understand it, so he just told me to play nice. I said I would, and that was it."

"Well, don’t you think what you’re doing now is — a bit harsh?" said Luke. "I mean, what she did wasn’t really that bad."

"So? It’s not really about what she did. At this point it’s just funny," said Monica. "It’s not really about her at all, now. It’s not really personal."

"But – from her point of view – it must seem to be about her," said Luke. "How could she see it otherwise?"

"Don’t know. Don’t care. It’s just funny, bro! Just enjoy. Take a peek, here." She held out the laptop to Luke.  




Judy Irwin writes books about kids dealing with everyday stuff, like parents and divorce, friendships and bullies, and figuring out how to handle different situations and circumstances. So far, she's written two books: We're Done, and What Did You Say? We're Done is about 13-year-old Luke and how he figures out what went wrong when he's kicked out of school for a bullying incident. In What Did You Say?, 12-year-old Tash tries to figure out what life will be like following her parents' divorce. In this book, which takes place at a trailer park up north, Tash first meets Luke, Jon and Polly.

Judy lives in Toronto, Canada, with a dog, a cat, and two hamsters, plus her husband and two children, ages 10 and 13. She studied English Literature at the University of Toronto. She always wanted to be a writer. She wrote her first book in fourth grade - it was about a boy called Japan, who lived in Japan. In addition to writing books, Judy is a freelance business writer.

For more info:

www.judyirwin.com
www.amazon.com/author/judyirwin

Buy it on Amazon~ We're Done

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7 comments:

  1. I think that the message is very important. Great to see the topic aired.

    marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

    ReplyDelete
  2. It seems like every week I see a story on the news about bullying. Sad topic.

    Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think that this is a very important story that needs to be told. Thank you for puting it in writing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the honest review!

    eai(at)stanfordalumni(dot)org

    ReplyDelete
  5. I noticed you gave a separate reading for the message, which I think is accurate. Thanks for being honest!

    I think the message is the most important, even if the read itself was okay, which is something you pinpointed well.

    chrysrawr@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for writing a review that points out the good and bad in the book. I think this is such a timely subject and a book geared towards younger readers that maybe they wouldn't want to delve into the emotional side as much especially boys. Thanks, Carin
    mawmom at gmail dot com

    ReplyDelete

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