Here is a book with a few new twists in dealing with bullying, children with divorced parents, being a twin,  and a teacher who ‘means well’.

Fourth grade Monty (Montana) and his twin Sierra live in Portland, Maine. Sierra is athletic and decisive, while Monty can’t seem to make a decision on anything. Monty needs to make decisions on : choosing a pet, a writing topic, choosing a place to seat for lunch at school, choosing a book for silent reading in class and sticking with it, choosing a name for his new pet rat, and choosing an instrument for band class among other things.

Monty’s indecisiveness has earned him a trip to the school office where his well-meaning teacher decides to put three ‘band-aids’ on his arm as an aid in helping him make decisions. Each time Monty changes his mind in class, the teacher will rip off a band-aid, now known as “decision-aids”. Ouch – both physically and psychologically. While in the office, the principal gets involved calling Monty a waffler. Then, “Principal Edwards said, ‘Well, Jasmine, a waffler is somebody who waffles. They can’t make up their mind. They go back and forth from one thing to another, wasting their time and everybody else’s.’ She pointed to the big clock on the wall, ‘And we don’t have time to waste! It’s time to be learning! So, Jasmine –Monty–off you go!’ (p. 25)” Soon,thanks to Jasmine the ‘town-crier’, the whole school is calling Monty “waffle” , which he doesn’t like.

Next, Monty’s mother wants to start flip-flopping the twins, so one twin is with her, while the other twin is with their father. Now the plot has step-parents and step-siblings involved, in addition to splitting up that special bond between twins (they are already in different classrooms at school).

Kindergarten Reading Buddies are assigned to Monty’s fourth grade class, one per person. Monty feels sorry for the kindergarteners who weren’t assigned a buddy due to the fact these kindergarteners are in their pull-out special education class, or ELL, or some other pull-out program during Reading Buddy time. One by one, Monty gains 3 “unofficial” reading buddies which he meets with during his recess time unbeknownst to his teacher, who insists Monty and all other children may only have ONE buddy.

Special bonds form between Monty and his official and ‘unofficial’ Reading Buddies. When the Reading Buddy -Culminating Event is about to take place, Monty is forced by his teacher to choose only one buddy for the event. How will Monty ever choose and not break the hearts of his other three buddies? Parents, teachers, classmates, and buddies all help in this with multiple twists!

reading buddies.