Riot School

by Robert Rayner

In the middle of the night, five teens break into a small town high school that has been closed by the regional school board. They are there to protest the decision to move them to a big city school and make their little town that much smaller. Led by Bilan, whose experience with the Arab Spring fired a passion to peacefully fight against injustice, the Gang of Five occupy their old school. The local police chief and the town quietly cheer them on. When the school board calls in a big security firm to break up their occupation using any means necessary, including force, the five have to decide how far they will go to show their outrage at having no control over decisions that affect their lives.

This is a novel which picks up on themes drawn from the world around us, and shows how these can play out in the lives of contemporary young people.

Genres: Young Adult

184 pages, ebook

Published August 22, 2016

About the author

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I’ve worked as a journalist, a teacher, and an elementary school principal. Now I teach music at home. I like to walk, read, ski, feed and watch the birds, watch soccer, photograph, listen to and play music (I play keyboard and saxophone in a band) and, of course, write, usually in the early morning. I live on the Magaguadavic River in St. George, New Brunswick, Canada.

Reviews

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was very clever in the way it used the students stand in at a school in Canada and compared it with the Arab uprising. By doing this Rayner helps us see that we too have opposition in our lives and how much we can stand up for our own rights peacefully.
I would recommend this book as an excellent read especially for the teenage and young adult group as it will show them an alternative to all the anger and rebellion which is too often on the news.
I really liked the variety of young people in the gang of five. The leader an immigrant to Canada, a girl whose life has been torn apart by her divorced parents and the three boys. It also introduced us to a supportive policeman and a renegade councillor, father to one of the boys. An excellent mixture.
I was given this book by Netgalley and the publisher. This is my voluntary review.

[Bless · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, marvelous, fabulous, extraordinary and rebellious book! This book high-key blew my mind! I love how the book included rebel teens that deserve to be heard. I love how the Gang of Five had each others back and looked out for each other. I also love how this book included race and religion. It teaches me that no matter what your religion is, whether you are a girl or not, you always have the right to voice your own opinion and to stand strong and tall to get your message across in a respective way. Great job Mr. Rayner! I recommend this book to every high school student who wants change and will enforce positive reinforcements and go to a certain extent to be heard without doing anything illegal, so all people should read this inspiring book. A million stars and thumbs up!!!

[arta · Rating 2 out of 5]

for school

[Bárbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

*ARC provided by NetGalley*

This book was a breath of fresh air: it was a true delight to read, with the masterful way in which it balances an analysis on current affairs- and the society that prompts them- with the variety of complex, intricate characters that conduct the actions. But at the same time, these characters are still people, not instruments to get the message across, and that's incredibly important, in a story like this one. These are characters that aren't (only) the brave and bold revolutionaries that carry out their fight for their right to be heard- they are also a bunch of teenagers with teenager lives, teenager minds, teenager feelings and drama. That is also taken into account and developed masterfully.

I'm only giving it 4 stars though because there were some things I didn't agree with, character wise; some of the characters' evolution made little sense to me, and ended up working in detriment of characters that I had loved, up to the point where their development stopped following the same logic it'd started with. True, there were changes to all the characters, for some it worked in theit favor, for some it didn't. Still, I feel obliged to take all of it into account, and some decisions the author made with some characters I just didn't agree with.

Regardless of my personal appreciation about this last thing I mentioned, I still loved the book a great deal, and I think that it's worthy of appreciation because regardless of the short amount of pages, it's definitely bigger than it may seem (if that makes sense- at least I know it makes sense to me).

[Brooke Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trigger Warning: Assault, Sexual Assault, 

That was really clever. It makes the argument for keeping the school open and the consequences if they don’t in a powerful way. It’s an open ending that leaves you to wonder what happens next for these kids. 

As with the other Sidestreets books, it’s short and straightforward making it easily recommendable to tweens and reluctant readers with the content and characters that even older teens can enjoy it. 

However, it didn’t handle Arn’s jealousy, insecurity, and anger issues well (major red flags) or his sudden 180 on vandalizing the school. The sexual violation and creep aspect of Bilan’s assault isn’t mentioned, other than it happening. There’s also no social media mention, other than “don’t spread it around for fear of parents getting word”, but I think after the adults found out, it’d have been more meaningful to bring social media back into play. 

"Injustice--and that is what we are facing here--is never small potatoes. It always has to be challenged. " --Bilan, Chapter 11.

[Simona Dreca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is easy to read, it's suitable for both teenagers and those who are learning English.
A group of boys (The gang of five) decides to oppose peacefully to the closure of their school. During the protest we know the characters and witness to their evolutionary transition.
The gang is made up of very different characters, which allows every type of reader to identify with the story.

Il libro è di facile lettura, adatto sia ad adolescenti che a chi sta imparando l'inglese.
Un gruppo di ragazzi (La gang of five) decide di opporsi, pacificamente, alla chiusura della loro scuola. Durante la protesta conosciamo i personaggi e assistiamo al loro passaggio evolutivo.
La gang è composta da personaggi molto diversi tra loro, il che permette ad ogni tipo di lettore di immedesimarsi nella vicenda.

Thanks to Netgallery for preview

[Shaeley Santiago · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bilan's school is going to be shut down, and kids will have to go by bus to a neighboring town for school instead. She and several of her classmates think this is an unfair decision. They are not even allowed to express their opinion to the school's governing body. Instead, they decide to protest the decision by carrying on with their studies at the closed school.

The story is easy to read and has a variety of diverse characters including Bilan who is an immigrant to Canada and another student who is homeless. I gave the book three stars because I felt like the characters were somewhat flat and not completely believable. The topic would relate well to advocacy and non-violent protests.

I reviewed an electronic ARC on NetGalley courtesy of the publisher.

[virtualb · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a lot of potential with an interesting and diverse cast of characters, but I was left feeling a lot of threads were left unfinished. I fully believe that writers should give readers what they need, not what they want, but that also involves character arcs and resolutions. I also wasn't sure of the purpose of narrative - if the author wanted to encourage students to speak up and have a voice, he wasn't very successful at it. And, I find hard to believe that these students, as articulate as they were, wouldn't have been more media savvy.

I received a review copy through NetGalley.

[Toni FGMAMTC · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book seems like it tries to fit all types of people in. A group of kids gets together to protest and they are an extremely diverse bunch. I wasn't sure what the point of the story was though. I thought they would see similarities in each other and grow close, but they actually didn't. Also, I thought maybe they would see how peaceful protest can accomplish something, but all hell breaks loose. At the end, most everyone in the book seems like they aren't a decent person.

[Kristina Aziz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not an unpleasant story to read, but it is a bit underwhelming. The characters fell flat and while the story itself started out well, towards the end it seemed unrealistic. I wouldn't be able to make a spot for this book on my shelf.

[Sheena-kay Graham]

Refuse to rate. 0% recommend such a stereotypical divisive book. Got on Netgalley, shame for distributing this thing.

[Starr · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a super quick read, but felt pointless. I have no idea what message the author was trying to convey with the twisty ending.