If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period

If a Tree Falls during Lunch Period

The novel If a Tree Falls during Lunch Period written by Gennifer Choldenko is a novel about two seventh graders. The author wrote this novel in the perspective of first person. At every other chapter the story had the same character speaking. This means that one character spoke in all the odd chapters while the other character spoke in all the even chapters.

The story started out in the perspective of Kirsten McKenna. It is the first day of school. Her mom dropped her off and as she was leaving her, she almost crashed into a Nissan 350Z. She met the student that rides in that Nissan. Kirsten arrived late to class on the first day of school. The other student was also late. The teacher, who is quite strict, made these two students and two other students for talking a Saturday detention with him. At the Saturday detention the four students had to help organize the classroom. The other two students that received detention were Brianna and Rory. At the end of the detention, the strict teacher asked where his wallet was. Rory, which Kirsten thought was her best friend, told the teacher to inspect Kirsten’s back bag. Kirsten had no idea where the wallet was. As it turned out the teacher inspected the back bag and found his wallet. Kirsten did not receive consequences for this event. She did tell the teacher that she thought someone had planted the wallet in her back bag. During Lunch, Rory told Kirsten that Brianna put the wallet in her back bag. Brianna made Rory tell the teacher to check Kirsten’s back bag. Brianna happens to be a popular girl. Rory did this act to see if she could join the popular crowd. At home Kirsten’s parents did have some marriage issues.

The second main character happened to be Walk Climpton. This was a special school year for Walk because this was his first year at a private school. He received a partial scholarship to attend this school. Walk happened to be the only African American at this school. He was the student that received the detention along with Kirsten. At this school, Walk only had a good friend at this school which whose name is Mateo. Walk happened to have a cousin whose name is Jamal that enjoyed selling objects. The only parent that Walk had was his mother.

Mateo is a minor character in this story but with a complicated situation. He happened to be incredibly smart. The problem with his life was that Mateo’s mom was Brianna’s cleaning lady. When Mateo did not give Brianna his work to copy, she made Mateo’s mom suffer. Brianna accused Mateo’s mom of stealing, breaking objects and doing disasters while she was the person doing all of these atrocities. Mateo had no other choice, but to surrender to Brianna’s wishes because he did not want to see his mother suffering. Brianna had a huge desire to participate in a school talent show. One time Kirsten wrote an anonymous note to the teacher that Brianna stole Mateo’s work. The teacher saw the note on his desk and it said to inspect Brianna’s back bag. The teacher did see Mateo’s mom work inside of Brianna back bag. This made Brianna be ineligible to participate in the talent show. Mateo was finally able to stop worrying about Brianna.

Walk and Kirsten became great friends. Kirsten was at one time hungry. She went into the garage to eat because that was the place where the junk food was kept. She did not want her parents to see her eating junk food, so she hid. Her parents came into the garage and started arguing. This fight astonished Kirsten because she found out that Walk is her half brother.

Walk also found out about this news in a different way. Kirsten did not tell her parents that she heard the argument. Kirsten did tell her sister, Kippy, about this news. Kippy who is younger than Kirsten called Walk. Kippy told Walk that she was her sibling. At first Walk could not believe it. He went through his mom’s drawer of private information. He found out about this when he saw the last name of McKenna in one of those documents. Walk was angry. He relieved his anger by driving in his mother’s car at the age of thirteen.

Later on in the story, Kirsten’s mom explained why this occurred. Kirsten’s parents had an off and on relationship. During that off relationship Kirsten’s father dated Walk’s mother. The couple broke up and he went back to Kirsten’s mother and decided to get married. When he got married, he found out that both women he had a relationship with were pregnant. The man decided to stay with the women that he married.

Walk’s mother also told more information to Walk. Walk’s middle name, Wilbur, was a name passed on generation through generation through his biological father. His last name, Climpton, happened to be the last name that Walk’s mother decided to give Walk. This surname was the same surname that her friend had. As it turned out he died in the armed forces and he never found out that Walk’s mother gave Walk his last name. Throughout Walk’s whole life until that moment he thought that his father was dead.

At the end Walk happens to react differently about the news. He starts accepting his father. He found out that his father was always looking out for him. Walk’s dad used to see him swim at the YMCA. Walk was not aware of that. Walk also found out that his father paid for the other half of the tuition to be part of this private school. This family started acting like a huge family regardless of race.

This book captured my attention even though the characters were in seventh grade. Normally, when an author has characters in a certain grade, that book is directed towards the audience of three grades. For instance a story about seventh graders is aimed towards middle school children. A story about a junior is aimed towards secondary school students. Overall, this book was not too hard or too easy to read.

Gennifer Choldenko made a great effort in writing this story. Even though the characters switched at every chapter, this story was still fluent. Through her writing, the reader can tell the distinctive way a character speaks or behaves. A story that switches character at every chapter does need a distinction because the reader can get confused that they are reading about a different character.

The three years of middle school are known for drama. This story however has a lot more than just drama. When I was in seventh grade the only type of drama that was common was a problem due to cheating. The word cheating was mostly related to tests and dating. This story had no romance problems instead there were personal problems. An example would be that Walk and Kirsten found out that they were related and Walk was not sure who he really was. It is quite interesting to see an author write about seventh graders in a unique way.

Walk was angry when he found out that Kirsten was his half sister. He had a great reason to be angry. Keeping a secret for thirteen years is absurd. This secret involved Walk. He had a reason to know a long time ago. For thirteen years he was living with the idea that his father was dead. As it turned out, he actually had a father that was alive and he also had a surname that did not correspond to him. This whole problem could have been avoided if Walk would have known about this news when he was young. If Walk would have known this at age five, he would have been more accepting when he heard this news. At age five, Walk would have not understood the whole situation. Hiding a secret from someone that is involved is disrespectful and irresponsible.

Walk and I interestingly enough have similarities. Walk felt uncomfortable at his school because he was the only African American. As the days passed on Walk became comfortable going to school. In fourth grade I had a similar situation. As it turned out I was the only Hispanic in the classroom. In the first couple of days I felt uncomfortable and I was shy. After a month, I thought the class was enjoyable. I was able to make friendships. This also occurred to Walk when he became friends with Kirsten. Walk and I learned that you cannot change who you are, but you can be proud of it.

There is one aspect of the book that I did not like. The title, If a Tree Falls during Lunch Period, was not a great title. At the end of this story there were two references to trees. The first reference was that at Kirsten’s house there was a dead tree. The family was going to replace that tree by growing a new tree. The second reference was on the last page of the story. Walk had to write about a question on the board. If a tree falls and there was no one to hear it, did it actually make a noise? Walk’s answer was yes that the tree would make noise. As a reader I did not see any symbolism to trees. In another great novel, Gennifer Choldenko wrote Al Capone Does my Shirts, the main character found out that Al Capone did his laundry at the end of the novel. This demonstrates that the author connects the title of the book to a situation at the end. The author could improve on constructing titles.

As a writer I would title this book as My Unknown Half Brother. This is not a five star title, but it is better than the original title. The title will attract more readers because it brings a bit of mystery. The reader will read this story more closely because they are waiting for the discovery to occur. Lastly this title would make sense to this story.

The story was entertaining to read. An event occurred every ten pages. This story did not have any boring spots. Each character had a unique personality which was easy to distinguish. As a reader it was clearly visible that the author wrote this to attract a wider audience. The story touched many subjects that children endure at age thirteen. There was some racism involved like when Walk was followed by the owner in a convenience store to make sure he would not steal. Cheating was involved when Brianna took Mateo’s work. There was an accusation when Kirsten was framed for stealing her teacher’s wallet. Deceiving was seen the way how Brianna treated Mateo’s mother. Betrayal occurred when Kirsten’s friend told the teacher to check Kirsten’s back bag. Typical matrimonial problems were visible when Kirsten’s parent’s argued. Bad communication occurred with Kirsten and her parents. As it can be seen each subject that the author touched was an actual important event in this story. As a reader I do recommend people to read this book.