Scrawl
Scrawl by Mark Shulman is a novel about a school play. This book is written as a detention novel in first person. The main character is a boy by the name of Tod Munn. He is helpful, caring, but stubborn at times. He lives with his mom and her boyfriend in the rough part of the city in a sketchy neighborhood. Tod does not enjoy school, most times he blurts out and messes around then gets yelled at by teachers. He might not enjoy school, but then he gets engaged in the school play because the conflict that happened between him and his friend Luz. Luz loves the arts, she is outgoing, and is bossy when it comes to the play. As they are working together on this play that Luz wrote, Tod makes a serious mistake and feels compelled to  now help Luz through the rest of the play until the big show.
As I was reading the book Scraw I thought about the lives that other people have than just me. You can not judge someone on somewhere they live,what they wear, and how many friends they have. I learned the different relationships that can change through a series of times. Such as Tod and the teacher at the beginning of the story compared to the end of the story. Tod did not like sitting in detention with his teacher everyday. At the end they created a bond and Tod’s teacher saw potential in him even though he is not the best at times. Also what Tod does to help out Luz during the conflict is amazing. Even though someone fixed his mistake he still felt bad so he continued to help Luz through the play. I enjoyed how the book kept getting interesting and how Tod changes his personality through the book.
Through the whole story Tod has written a detention journal with his teacher Mrs. Woodrow and they grew closer at the end of the book and Tod changed. He came a more caring and respectful person to others. Some themes in this book were to not judge a person without knowing their background and always to do the right thing. I enjoyed this book because it taught a life lesson and it kept making you wonder what is going to happen next. If you are into realistic fiction than this would be a good read for you.