Book Review: Edward Bloor's Tangerine (Draft #2)

[Alan Gomez]

Tangerine
Edward Bloor
Viking, 2003, 309 pp., $6.95
ISBN 0-15-201246X


Paul Fisher´s life is anything except normal. Having a giant problem with his eyes, a special needs boy is teased by his classmates who nickname him "Mars" and "Eclipse Boy" . So he's not normal like everybody else. But when his father has the opportunity to work in Florida and get paid double, things only get from bad to worse.

There are two important settings in Bloor's low-paced book : the middle school in Lake Windsor and Tangerine Middle. Paul enrolls in Lake Windsor, and soon enough he creates a powerful friendship with a boy named Joey Costello. After becoming best friends, they decide to try out for the soccer team, where later they experience a happening that changes their lives forever.

While Paul and Joey are the most likeable lead characters you'll ever meet, Paul's brother Erick and his follower Mike are the most detestable secondary characters you'll ever read about.These dudes (especiallyErick) try to get Paul to feel he's not normal and he's weird in all forms of ways.Erick's reputation has drop so deep that one time he tried to get the shoes of a dead person. And he says his brother is the wierdo.

I recommend this book to all people who are special needs, to all people who think special needs kids are not equal to everyone else, to anyone who loves soccer and wants to have a good time reading this amazing novel. This book changed my way of seeing life and so will yours.