Beam, Matt. Can you spell revolution?

Kliatt, Nov, 2008 by Paula Rohrlick

BEAM, Matt. Can you spell revolution? Penguin, Dutton. 272p. c2008. 978-0-525-47998-7. $1799. J

Chris, an 8th-grader, hates all the rules of middle school, but not nearly as much as the mysterious new student, Clouds McFadden. Determined to bring about change, and inspired by the French Revolution, Clouds teams up with Chris and three other students to commit "acts of dissent." Boris, for instance, sets out to change a teacher's dull instructional methods by instigating a note-taking strike, inspired by Gandhi, while Susan challenges the tyranny of the Magnas, a group of popular girls. Landry works at getting a teacher to stop picking on him, while Chris wants to improve the boring school assemblies. And Clouds ... well, in his efforts to fight student oppression he ends up becoming a tyrant himself, like his hero Lenin, and it's up to Chris to fix the situation. Perhaps repeating history isn't a good idea, after all.

This light-hearted tale about challenging authority should have great appeal to middle schoolers, though it appears to take place in a time warp where no one uses cell phones or search engines, making it seem rather dated. Still, the concept of standing up for students' rights will be popular, and the touch of romance that Beam (author of Getting to First Base with Danalda Chase) supplies will add to the novel's interest. Paula Rohrlick, KLIATT