SuitabookSmall Steps
Louis Sachar
- Reading
- Consider reading alongside a calm conversation about the difference between being judged and being accountable. Pause after risky decisions or threats, and invite the reader to explain how the characters’ perspectives alter their response.
- Themes
- Rebuilding after detention: Armpit works, studies and saves money while trying to stay out of trouble after release from juvenile detention, but a friend’s scheme tests that effort. The story presents change as difficult and worthwhile while showing Armpit making harmful or dishonest choices.
- Judgement and difference: Armpit experiences suspicion linked to his criminal record, size and race; his friendship with Ginny, who has cerebral palsy, is central to the story. The book takes a critical view of this.
- Celebrity and control: Kaira DeLeon is a teenage pop star under manager and bodyguard supervision; meeting Armpit and Ginny leads to trust and warmth amid a risky scheme. Celebrity life is shown as restrictive and emotionally isolating, but the surrounding plot also uses entertainment, romance and danger for heightened drama.
- Worth knowing
- Be aware of references to sex and drugs, smoking and drinking, mild epithets, fights, a stabbing, attempted murder and criminal schemes including ticket scalping, counterfeiting and deception. The story also includes romance and serious emotional pressure.