Jumped (edition 2009)

National Book Award Nominee 2009

This book was okay. I found it hard to relate to all three girls. I'm surprised it was nominated for this award. ( )

The book Jumped is a book focused on bullying. The story intertwines the lives of three previously unrelated girls who barely knew of each other, all in one day. These girls are in high school in a pretty bad area. Crimes are committed every day. On this particular day though, it will be different. On this day, Dominique has come to school early to confront a teacher about a bad grade, to take care of business as usual. Leticia is here due to a failing grade that led to a before school makeup class. And Trina has come to find the perfect spot to put up her prized paintings from art class. To all of them, it is a usual morning. When Dominique is turned down twice to changing her grade, she is on rampage. As she walks down the hall she is just looking for something to hit. Leticia decides this class isn’t worth it and leaves early. Trina finds the place for her paintings and skips off in happiness. Soon, they all meet. Trina bumps into Dominique without realizing it and continues down the hallway, not realizing what she has just done. Dominique declares that she is the one. After school, she is “getting her butt whooped.” Trina has no idea what kind of trouble is coming her way. And Leticia witnesses it all. And now the fate of the day remains up to her. Does she tell Trina to save her from certain defeat? Or does she leave it up to Dominique to take care of her?
This riveting book kept me turning pages as fast as I could, waiting to see what would happen next. I liked the way the author made the girls speak in a way that was realistic for their ethnicity and age. The situations they were put in were very practical for the area also, and I could tell that the author did her research on how to write the book first. I highly recommend it. Although, I wasn’t really a fan of the ending. It seemed to cut off the story awfully fast and I didn’t really like it. There’s no sequel and I had no idea what had happened. Also, the book was very short and not very detailed. It was all crammed into one day, and the words were huge so the pages were very short with little information. Even though there were some problems, I really liked the book and I would read it again. I recommend it to people who like books with drama or relatable high school situations.

I had trouble when I first started reading the book. I couldn't connect to the voices of the characters.I felt like I was reading a foreign language. and I identified with students that have a hard time when reading books with foreign words, or dialects that they don't know. But as I continued reading the characters came to life for me. I had the interesting experience of meeting Ms. Williams-Garcia and I was fascintated to find out how she created her characters' voices. It completely changed the way I thought about this book. ( )

“Try getting through these halls without elbows, backpacks, attitude, a lot of running, and now dancing. There are thirty-five hundred students in this school . . . from period three to period eight you have the weight of the world marching in this cereal box.”

Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia is story about girl-on-girl violence that takes place from “zero” period to the end of the day at 2:45. It is told from three teenagers’ points of view: Leticia, Trina, and Dominique. All three girls have very distinct personalities and perspectives of the world, which collide in Jumped.

Nothing is going right for Dominique. She loves basketball more than anything else, but she’s been benched for the season because she got a seventy, instead of seventy-five. She is upset by her situation and everything feels out of her control. She says, “The grades I get. The classes on my schedule. When I come and go. I don’t control none of that. All of that’s controlling me. Boxing me in” (pg. 147). ‘Nique is mad and she wants to prove it.

Trina, on the other hand, is having a perfect day. She feels complete in her hot pink jump suit that says, “Hot Chick.” She’s just finished viewing her artwork that is on display in the ‘C’ Corridor for African History Month, and she is pleased with her accomplishments. Life couldn’t be better . . . until she unknowingly crosses paths with Dominique.

Leticia is the character that many readers will find themselves relating to the most. She witnesses the interaction between Dominique and Trina between zero and first period. She knows that Trina is going to be jumped at 2:45, yet it’s not a clear-cut decision for her to alert anyone to the looming violence. Leticia’s character forces readers to think about what they would do in a similar situation. What is ethical and what is minding your own business?

Jumped is a quick book to read because of the changing points of view and the fact that it’s only 169 pages. The language and some scenes are gritty. Rita Williams-Garcia spent time observing classes and hallway interactions to get the characters right. ( )

This book is about some teen girls in school. Each chapter, one of the girls in the book, narrates their day/time at school. However, this year is different. A girl overhears about a girl jumping another girl. Will she tell what she heard or keep silent? It continues to touch on the peer violence that will be happening soon at the end of the school day. The time has come for one student that will jump another. Will the girl speak up before this happens, who knows?

The idea I have with this book is for my students to perform a reader's theater. I will take some exerpts from the entire book and our students will role play/read expressively their part. We will do this in groups of 5 for the first set of chapters. Each group of 5 will go every week reading the script of their assigned reading chapters. We will have a part for 3 of the girls: Leticia, Trina, and Dominique. The group will need a teacher and basketball coach. This will give our students a chance to really role play their character's role based on the book. The focus is mainly on reading the text using gestures and expressive voices.

I enjoyed reading this book. I liked the plot because it is reality. Peer violence does happen amongst our middle grade students; therefore, I would let middle schoolers read this book. I think the school and educators could open up the topic of peer violence and help those out on either side of the fence being the violent one, victim, or bystander. Everyone plays a part in this (an important part). Let's stop teen violence today! Start a anti-teen violence at your school. Let students come here to share, speak, and tell about their "role" in peer violence. ( )