“See Me” (Breaking the Rules Series)
by H.R. Hobbs
Published by H.R. Hobbs
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
ISBN 9-780995-344808
$10.00
Retired teacher Heather Hobbs has
turned her lifelong passion for books into a new profession. In 2015 she picked
up the pen and started writing realistic, contemporary page-turners for middle
years' students, and rather than wait years for a publisher to consider,
potentially accept her manuscript, and release her books, Assiniboia-based
Hobbs took matters into her own hands and published her own work under the pen
name H.R. Hobbs. With almost thirty years of classroom experience to her
credit, the teacher-turned writer's depiction of middle grades' school culture
results in an interesting and credible story.
See
Me, the first in her Breaking the Rules Series, looks just
like a trade published book. The cover features a close-up of an eye, and the
interior type is easy to read. The story's narrator is 13-year-old Hannah, an
only child who was traumatized on her very first day of kindergarten after a
classmate, Brady, noticed the "ugly" burn scars on her legs and
called her "Scar-legs". The ostracizing and bullying that began that
day has followed her all the way into Grade Seven, and her nemesis, Brady, is
still a classmate. All Hannah wants is "to be invisible in school,"
and for the most part, she is.
Hannah, the quiet loner, also seems to
hover beneath the radar at home, and that's exactly where she like to exist.
After she'd angered her farther during an early childhood incident, she vowed
to always follow the rules and never upset her father - "a man of few
words, he would come home from work, grab a bottle from the cupboard over the
fridge, and poor the golden liquid in a glass" - again. Hannah says that by
age five "the need to please [her] parents had become an obsession".
It doesn't sound like a very healthy childhood. Hannah's only outlet is her
journal. Full of her private thoughts and poems, the journal is "the only
place that [she] let [her] true self out". She never shares it with anyone.
Enter new student, Chip, with his
"Star Wars" T-shirts, his habit of engaging reticent Hannah in
conversation, and his I-don't-care-what-anyone-else-thinks attitude. Hannah
eventually warms to him. Unfortunately, Brady and his cohorts make Chip a
target, too.
Young readers will relate to the
contemporary language and references, ie: Chip says "Meh" and Hannah
watches "The Hunger Games" - for the fourth time.
As I write this there's another
national case of school bullying in the news. This issue is not going away, but
books like "See Me" can help youth who suffer understand that they
are not alone, and that speaking up, though difficult, is often the first step
toward a solution.
As compelling as the school story is,
it's the relationship between Hannah and her ambulance attendant father that I
look forward to learning more about in Hobbs' sequel, Hear Me. What's going on there?
A Kindle version of this book can be
ordered via amazon.ca. For more about the writer and this series, see
hrhobbsbooks.com.
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL
BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
by H.R. Hobbs
Published by H.R. Hobbs
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
ISBN 9-780995-344815
$15.00
In Hear
Me, Assiniboia, SK teacher-turned-writer H.R. Hobbs' follow-up to her
middle years' novel See Me, Grade
Eight protagonist Hannah evolves from a reclusive and bullied girl who tries to
remain invisible into an assertive gal who leads the charge for justice when
friends are victimized. Through realistic scenes that move between home and
school settings in fictional "Acadia," Hobbs' readers witness the ins
and outs of Hannah's troubled adolescent life, and learn how speaking up
against bullying makes a tremendous difference, even if the-powers-that-be
aren't eager to hear the message.
Readers of the first in this series of
novels know that journal-writing Hannah's set strict "rules" for
herself: "1. Don't make anyone mad. 2. If I'm invisible, no one can hurt
me. 3. Keep my problems to myself. 4. No one sees my writing!" In the past,
Hannah's angered her father and been hurt by classmates. Unlike her easy-going
- but also bullied - friend, Chip, Hannah's very sensitive to these attacks,
and she's determined to do something about them.
In this new novel she acquires a few
more friends, and, as in See Me, she
experiences how powerful the written word can be, both as a therapeutic
activity and as a way to find one's voice and use it for the greater good. It's
satisfying to see a character grow like this, and it would be affirming for
young readers who also struggle with bullying and poor self-confidence to read
about Hannah's progress.
Hobbs has done an especially sound job
of characterizing Hannah, whose desire to remain invisible extends to her
clothing. She attends a Hallowe'en dance dressed as Obi-Wan Kenobi from
"Star Wars", with an "infinity scarf" covering her head.
Even her friend, cheerleader Trudy, recognizes that the old, insecure Hannah
sometimes lurks just beneath the surface. "Hannah, why are you still
hiding?" she asks. I remembered my own junior high dances when Trudy says:
"Why does the student council even bother with dances? This is basically
just the lunchroom with costumes." And in descriptions of school hallways,
ie: "I had to fight my way against the tide of students going to
class," one can almost hear those locker doors being slammed and feel the
body-jostling.
It was encouraging to read that
Hannah's English teacher invited a spoken word poet into the classroom for a
workshop; writers in schools are a win-win for both the students and the often
severely economically-challenged writers. In this scene the poet shares a
poetry slam video featuring Canadian Shane Koyczon's performance of
"Troll," a piece about internet bullying. (As soon as I finish
writing this, I'll be checking that out.) I also appreciated that the invited
poet reminded Hannah and her classmates that "poetry is art for the listener" … " while it means
something to the poet, once it has left the poet's mouth it belongs to the
listeners to interpret for themselves". Superb advice.
Hannah's story feels far from over. See Me. Hear Me. Where will Hobbs take her next?
THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL
BOOKSTORE OR FROM THE SASKATCHEWAN PUBLISHERS GROUP WWW.SKBOOKS.COM
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