John David Anderson (1) (1975–)

When their sixth-grade teacher Ms. Bixby leaves before the end of the school year, Japanese-American Steve and his friends Brand and Topher, who are white, hatch a plan to skip school and visit her in the hospital, to see her again and give her a perfect last day. What seems like a series of simple errands turns out to be fraught with danger and mistakes, but also the kindness of strangers (including a baker named Eduardo and an old bookseller who tells riddles).

Steve, Brand, and Topher show more share first-person narrative duties in rotation; each has a private connection to Ms. Bixby, and a special reason for needing to see her before she's transferred to a hospital in Boston. Ms. Bixby defended Steve to his helicopter parents; she noticed Topher's artwork and saved it; and she has a standing Friday afternoon grocery shopping date with Brand, who takes care of his father, who uses a wheelchair.

Quotes

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." (Ms. Bixby, 14)

I'm a better-than-average lip reader. It comes from having people talk about you out of earshot all the time. (Steve, 21)

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." (Ms. Bixby, 22)

"Some things are more important than following the rules." (Brand to Steve, 46)

She'd say when you are content to be simply yourself, everyone will respect you. It's something she borrowed from Lao Tzu. (Steve, 80)

Hmm is what you say when you can't say the thing that the other person wants to hear. (Steve, 130)

Not everything has a formula, and sometimes things just happen for no reason at all, good or bad, logical or illogical. (Steve, 206)

"We all have moments when we think nobody really sees us. When we feel like we have to act out or be somebody else just to get noticed. But somebody notices, Topher. Somebody sees. Somebody out there probably thinks you're the greatest thing in the whole world. Don't ever think you're not good enough." (Ms. Bixby, 233) show less

For all the kids who loved [b:Wonder|11387515|Wonder|R.J. Palacio|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1309285027s/11387515.jpg|16319487], this is Wonder with a lot more meat on its bones. I think this is the best bullying novel I've ever read. I wish it were a little shorter, because it's a perfect all-school read but I worry it'll intimidate some kids. My first 6th grade reviewer said it took her awhile to get into it (also a concern for all-school-reads), but by the end she was copying show more quotes down and asked to keep it so she could re-read it before she returned it to the library. show less

I’m tempted to keep this review really short:

“Read this book. It’s wonderfully written, perfectly structured and shares the lives. problems, passions and fears of three young boys in a way that feels real and true without ever getting schmaltzy or maudlin.”

Except that doesn’t do just to the impact this book had on me. It was one of the best reading experiences of the year so far.

I bought “Ms. Bixby’s Last Day” in the hope that it might be good but the expectation that it show more would turn out to be too saccharin for me to make it to the end of. The reviews used words like “heartwarming” and “uplifting”. These terms have been so degraded by Disney and Hallmark that, to me, they scream “phoney”.

My wife read the book first. She recommended it but warned me that it was sad and that it had someone in it with cancer. I can’t always cope with sad and we’ve both lost too many people to cancer to approach it casually.

I waited for a sunny day when I was feeling relaxed and then tried the first hour. After that, I was committed. I needed to know more about the people and what they were up to. I found myself unwilling to stop for necessary but inconvenient things like work, food and sleep. I wanted to get back to the boys and their journey.

The book is told as three first person accounts, with each boy getting a chapter in turn. The pace of both plot and character development are perfect. There is a quest structure that is amusing and exciting and sad in turns but never leaves the real world behind.

At the centre of the book are: three very different boys who each have a particular take on friendship, a teacher they all love but who is neither a saint nor a super hero and their mission to provide her with a perfect last day.

What I liked most about the book was the way the character of each boy was slowly built up through a series of interlocking events and insights that deepened my experience as the book progressed.

I was glad to see that, while the book did deliver a big finale that actually meant something, it didn’t pull any punches and the main focus remained on the boys themselves.

I strongly recommend the audiobook version of “Ms. Bixby’s Last Day”. Each of the boys has their own narrator, which emphasises their individuality. The performances are pretty close to perfect.

One last thing. My wife was right. It is sad. It will make you cry. Life is like that. show less

Three sixth-graders are dismayed when they learn that their teacher, Ms. Bixby, has been diagnosed with cancer and must leave school before the end of the year in this humorous and heartwarming middle-grade novel. One of the 'good ones,' teachers who "make the torture otherwise known as school somewhat bearable," Ms. Bixby has had a great impact on the lives of Topher, Steve and Brand, and the trio of friends sets out to give her an ideal last day, complete with all of the trimmings. Things show more never go quite as planned, of course, and as the boys skip school to make Ms. Bixby's last day a reality, they encounter numerous unexpected complications, from the cost of white-chocolate raspberry cheesecake, to the duplicity of adults who promise to help kids buy bottles of wine. In the end, although it doesn't look quite as they imagined, that last day has great meaning, both for the boys and for their teacher.

Alternating in perspective between Topher, Steve and Brand, who each have chapters told from their viewpoint, Ms. Bixby's Last Day does an excellent job in slowly building a picture of its eponymous figure, as seen through the eyes of the three boys. Flashbacks reveal the many ways that she helped each one of them, whether it was to encourage them to build upon their strengths - Topher's talent as an artist, Brand's budding interest in literature and his perseverance in the face of hardship - or to see the larger picture, as when she stands up to Steve's academics-obsessed father, emphasizing the importance of growing as a person, in addition to obtaining knowledge. The reader gets to know this remarkable teacher through the memories of three of her most devoted pupils, making the conclusion of the book (which I did not expect) all the more heartbreaking. Recommended to me by a co-worker, Ms. Bixby's Last Day was an immensely rewarding read. I felt that Anderson created three very real boys, each of whom felt like an individual, and demonstrated both their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their essential goodheartedness. Highly recommended to anyone looking for contemporary school stories featuring characters who grow and change throughout the story. show less