Please Don’t Ignore Her

“The trick is remembering that change is as easy as you make it.” Truth.

5.13 Please Ignore Vera Dietz

This was a pretty gut-wrenching read.  It just rang so true, and so sad, for me.  It made the faces of many past students flash before my eyes, with the constant reminder that for some kids life will never be fair.  Some kids are failed by the system and by the people around them, by the people who know better.

As the story opens Vera is at the funeral of her best friend Charlie, or ex-best friend as the case may be.  We being at the end, as the rest of the story tells us, through flash backs, about their friendship, how it fell apart, and what really happened to Charlie. Meanwhile it is also a story about two kids, acting very much like teenagers – which I am sure has conservative parents in an absolute fit as the book won a Printz  Honor Award – and just trying to keep their heads down and make it through.  So many kids now a days do that.  It seems like they are literally holding their breath until the something better comes along, but there are also so many more ways to get in trouble than there used to be, and so many more people too bothered to intervene when they see wrongs being committed.  At the core, I think that is what this book is about:  Idly standing by, and how it has become really hard to push back against that new expectation.  I think both kids and adults would learn a lot about acting responsibly from this book.

The end is a bit tidy for me, but the core is very messy and very real.  And in many ways, very scary.