We love Rob Buyea’s first novel!

Today we finished Rob Buyea’s first novel.  It’s called Because of Mr. Terupt, and it’s about a classroom of fifth graders and their awesome teacher.  The book is sectioned off into months so it is easy to imagine where the students are in the school year.  The students love Mr. Terupt’s teaching style, but it ends up being questioned when the big event of the story happens. 

We loved the fact that we didn’t see it coming (the big event).  We knew something was coming because the characters kept alluding to it, but we didn’t know what it would be.  Mr. Buyea does a beautiful job with foreshadowing and creating believable and recognizable characters.  And much like in real life classrooms, as we read we found out that everyone has a story.

It was a book so beautifully written that towards the end we cried about a character that we only knew for one page.  The story really focused on the emotions that people feel when they are in relationships with other people and how those emotions change as the relationship changes.

Without giving too much away, here are some student responses to the book.

“I loved Because of Mr. Terupt because it had moments when I felt like I was really there.  When someone got hurt, I felt all weird, like I was part of it.”
  -Hailey

“I really liked the book.  It is for sure my second favorite book!”         
– Kolby

“I liked the author because he used foreshadowing and hooked me in.  My heart was either beating fast, or I was laughing hard.”            
– Austin

“I loved this book because it really touched my heart.  The author really made the student’s lives …. real.  I also hated this book because it hurt me sooooooooo bad.  It actually made me cry.”          
-Saphire

“I felt really sorry for Jeffrey.  I can’t imagine living in his house.  I think that Jeffrey did the right thing by telling his parents he loved them.”         
– Allison

“My favorite character is Mr. Terupt because he changed everything for all the kids he had in his class.  He helped everyone in that class.  He helped Jeffrey talk to his parents, Lexi bring out her nice, and Danielle become more self confident.  Mr. Terupt is really awesome.”         
– Maia

“I felt bad for Anna because she doesn’t have a dad, and her mom is hated by Danielle’s mom and grandma.”         
-Cooper

“I loved this book because there were emotional parts, but there were many jubilant parts, too.”         
– Tyler

“My favorite character is Anna because she is always calm and quiet.”                  
 -Cieara

“My favorite person in the book is Mr. Terupt because he is awesome, and he’s very kind.”         
-Peyton

3 thoughts on “We love Rob Buyea’s first novel!

  1. I loved this book. It had spots that made me cry and spots that made me happy, ecspecially the ” Big Incident”………

    • Saphire, I am with you on the happy and crying parts.The “Big Incident” made me want to leave the room because I couldn’t handle it.

      -kyra

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