It all starts with an assignment. Leon's "gifted and talented" class has to make educational videos for the sixth and seventh graders. Le...
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Dec 06, 2007
Christina
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8th grader Leon is in gifted classes, he's smart but a bit of a slacker. When his health class is assigned to make health topic videos to show to the 6th graders, however, he gets excited about making a sex education video for them. He's learning about avant garde art and decides to make a really avant garde video, with random photos of nude art and a jazzy soundtrack and a voiceover poem created by a friend of his. He's sure it will be like nothing those kids have ever seen before; it'll get th
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Aug 13, 2007
Gwen the Librarian
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Leon is one of the kids in the gifted pool of his junior high. While he considers himself a metal-head to avoid being labeled nerd, Leon feels like he comes from pretty pathetic stock. His dad loves to come up with things that have already been invented and his mom’s hobby is to cook really gross food from other eras, like the 1950’s. At least the other kids in the gifted pool are pretty cool, rebellious kids. When Leon’s teacher assigns a project to make new films for the younger grades, Le
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Aug 06, 2007
Librarian
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Leon's parents are very eccentric. His father is an inventor of things that already exist, and his mother's hobby is to make dinners out of out-dated cookbooks that are as hideous as she can make them, just to be ironic. He has learned one thing from them, and that is to honor your creativity, no matter what. A smart-but-rebellious thirteen year old, Leon decides to take a school assignment and run with it- he decides to make an avant-garde sex education movie. Leon gets suspended for his ef
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Jan 12, 2012
Karen
rated it: 
I was fully prepared to hate this book. In fact, I am not quite sure why I even wanted to read it, since it was about a gifted student who was making a sex ed video for a class. The fact that the author looked 12 also gave me pause.
I loved this book.
Never mind the painful epiphany this morning that yeah, I should identify more with the parents. (Since my daughter is 13, I should, shouldn't I?). Not only will students want to read this because of the topic, the cartoon cov More...
I loved this book.
Never mind the painful epiphany this morning that yeah, I should identify more with the parents. (Since my daughter is 13, I should, shouldn't I?). Not only will students want to read this because of the topic, the cartoon cov More...
May 03, 2009
Book
rated it:
Leon Harris: Here's a very real young guy who, through his junior high hi-jinks is searching - albeit fumbling - for meaning, trying to express the beliefs he's slowly realizing he has.
The overall voice is more authenitc in a true way, rather than just sassy to be sassy, like so many young adult novels are currently.
The assignment: each of the students in "the giften pool" are to make an educational video to be shown to the younger students. Drawing on memorie More...
The overall voice is more authenitc in a true way, rather than just sassy to be sassy, like so many young adult novels are currently.
The assignment: each of the students in "the giften pool" are to make an educational video to be shown to the younger students. Drawing on memorie More...
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Apr 25, 2009
Brandon
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Leon Harris: Here's a very real young guy who, through his junior high hi-jinks is searching - albeit fumbling - for meaning, trying to express the beliefs he's slowly realizing he has.
The overall voice is more authenitc in a true way, rather than just sassy to be sassy, like so many young adult novels are currently.
The assignment: each of the students in "the giften pool" are to make an educational video to be shown to the younger students. Drawi More...
The overall voice is more authenitc in a true way, rather than just sassy to be sassy, like so many young adult novels are currently.
The assignment: each of the students in "the giften pool" are to make an educational video to be shown to the younger students. Drawi More...
Oct 26, 2011
Meagan
rated it:
This teen novel will likely appeal to librarian-types because of its focus on information creation and intellectual freedom issues. That's right up our alley! For non-librarian types, the story is about a middle schooler who gets an assignment to create a health video for sixth and seventh graders. He, like any other normal teen boy, chooses sex ed in case there's any chance of filming some nudity. In the end his video comes to mean more to him, especially in light of the fact that it gets h
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Sep 16, 2011
Aidan
rated it:
Do you know what avant-garde is? If not, read this book. If you do, read this book. If you are breathing right now, read this book. This is such a good book about middle schoolers that I think everyone should read it. Pretty much, a eigth grader from the gifted pool (or as he calls it, the smartasses) tries to make a avant garde movie about sex education caleed La Dolce Pubert. It involves artistic nudity, kissing, a CPR dummy, a explosion and a flash of boob. But the teacher Ms. Smollet won't a
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Aug 26, 2008
Swankivy
rated it:
I bought and read this 'cause my friend got engaged to the author and I wanted to read something he wrote. I thought it was very readable and fun young adult book--my only criticism is that (like a lot of kids' books) the characters' dialogue was often more witty and well-constructed than you'd expect even adults' dialogue to be (which I found difficult to swallow despite the fact that they were supposed to be "gifted pool" kids--I was in the gifted program and we weren't quite that we
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Dec 22, 2011
Jennifer
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Reviewed by Jeremey for TeensReadToo.com
Eighth-grader Leon has a project in his class for gifted and talented students. Each student must make his or her own educational video to show the lower classmen. What subject do you think a hormonal teenager will choose? Of course, sex education.
Despite his wanting to see pictures of naked people, Leon wants to show the kids that puberty is normal. Hair grows, things change, you have certain urges, and everything's like a big exp More...
Eighth-grader Leon has a project in his class for gifted and talented students. Each student must make his or her own educational video to show the lower classmen. What subject do you think a hormonal teenager will choose? Of course, sex education.
Despite his wanting to see pictures of naked people, Leon wants to show the kids that puberty is normal. Hair grows, things change, you have certain urges, and everything's like a big exp More...
Nov 15, 2008
TheSaint
rated it: 
First off, this book is going straight to the middle school. If the librarian there will take it. It was a mistake to buy it for a high school population.
Second. I didn't warm to the first person narrator. Yes he's a gifted kid with gifted friends. The author goes to great lengths to make sure we know that, but still, the kid, the kid's language just didn't ring true for me. But then, I'm not around 8th graders all day, either.
Third, the suspension part (and the real story) doesn't More...
Second. I didn't warm to the first person narrator. Yes he's a gifted kid with gifted friends. The author goes to great lengths to make sure we know that, but still, the kid, the kid's language just didn't ring true for me. But then, I'm not around 8th graders all day, either.
Third, the suspension part (and the real story) doesn't More...
Jan 24, 2010
In some ways this is rather like a middle-school version of Rats Saw God (though it is not as good as RSG, one of my very favorite YA novels), and it made me laugh out loud, despite suffering from the quirky character (in this case, quirky parents: Dad is an inventor who hates Edison) curse.
Nov 04, 2010
Jonathan
rated it:
I enjoyed the book "How to Get Suspended and Influence People". As as middle school student i could strongly relate to the main character Leon and his problems. The story is about Leon turning a regular school project into a creative work of art. Leon stands up against authority for what he believes in. The story makes you think just because someone is authority to you does that mean that they are always right and shouldn't be challenged. I would recommend this book for 7th, 8th, or 9t
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Jun 05, 2010
Izowizo
rated it:
This book caught me by the title and it was very good. It's about how a boy named Leon makes a video about puberty for his advanced class assignment in middle school. when it's finished, he ends up getting suspended and the movie gets banned from his entire town. but his fellow classmates won't take that, they organize protest and by the end of the semester everyone has an "illegal" copy of his movie. I liked the book because of its sarcasm and how the character's would talk the way ac
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Sep 19, 2007
The Library Lady
rated it:
Funny--kids will enjoy it--but I found it a little contrived and the adult characters a little cardboardy. Still, lots of fun and lots for kids to talk about.
Warning school librarians, this includes another male anatomical word other than "scrotum", and some talk about "whacking off". But then, the main character is making an avant garde sex education film to show younger students at this middle school--what would you expect?
Warning school librarians, this includes another male anatomical word other than "scrotum", and some talk about "whacking off". But then, the main character is making an avant garde sex education film to show younger students at this middle school--what would you expect?
Jan 09, 2011
Andrew
rated it:
Funny and enjoyable. The kind of YA book I would've been happy to read when I was in middle school. Too bad it didn't come out until the year I graduated.
May 30, 2008
Trina
rated it:
Funny, but totally inappropriate to bring in for my eighth graders due to a little too much discussion about puberty.
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