Keep Holding On by: Susane Colasanti

 

Who doesn't run the other way when she thinks her life is being threatened?  Who doesn't fight to stay alive? Every single day of my life is a fight.  But yesterday, I gave up without even trying.  I want to keep fighting.  I really do.  I'm just so tired of how nothing ever gets better.

 

Chew.
Swallow.
Chew.
Swallow.
Don’t look up.

Lunch is the worst, but there’s no safe place at school for Noelle. Keeping her mortifying home life a secret and trying to ignore the kids who make her life miserable are Noelle’s survival strategies. Her emotionally distant boyfriend, Matt, isn’t the one she really wants to be with. But there’s no way she could ever be with Julian Porter.

When Julian starts talking to her, Noelle is terrified. It seems safer to stay with Matt than risk a broken heart. But when the bullying of a friend goes too far, Noelle realizes it’s time to stand up for herself—and for everything that makes her keep holding on.

 I am a big fan of Susane Colasanti, I love her books.  When this book came out recently it was greeted with mixed reviews.  I read it and I think it is a really great book that handles the "Big B" epidemic well.  Bullying is real and it happens in all schools, and turning away from it doesn't make it go away.  In this story, Noelle, is bullied and she is ashamed.
She is ashamed that she is poor that subjects her to the bullying.
She is ashamed that she has no back bone to stand up for herself or those around her that are also being bullied.
She is ashamed that her mother doesn't love her.
She is ashamed that she allows her "boyfriend" to keep her a secret.
She is ashamed to be who she is. 

This story can be any ones story.  It is real, it is raw and I feel it is a must read.