Rating: 
Summary: Diversity Within Today's Schools
Review: "On the Fringe" is a book of short stories compiled by different authors. The stories do contain one central topic, youth that are considered outsiders. These outsiders face many different problems. One story focuses on hygiene problems, one is about a boy that is short, thin, and is nervous around his peers, and yet another is about an outcast who took his aggression out with a gun at school. These stories did not all focus on one person; several had a cluster of individuals that were ins ome way or another ostricized by the seemingly perfect in-crowd.
We all read this book with deep interest. We felt that it was easy to read due to the fact that they were short stories. We had a desire to find out what happened in each one. We felt like it was very informative. The stories definitely opened our eyes to a variety of issues that neither one of us had ever imagined existed. We, as a society, tend to close our eyes to so much that is unpleasant. This book brings out that side, the one that no one wants to realize exists.
As for liking this book and recommending it, we thought that it was very enlightening and educational, but we would not recommend it for school-aged children to read. It touches on many topics that do happen in our schools, and we do not think that children should be given examples of how to humiliate other students. This is a book that we would recommend to adults. This book illustrates what is going in the heads of kids that do not fit the perfect student role model. These are everyday young adults with problems. This collaboration of stories opened our eyes, and hopefully helped us to know who we, as future teachers, are looking for that need extra love and attention. Maybe with our eyes open, we will be able to counteract some of the negativity that these future adults undergo and keep them from performing a drastic event that will seal their fate forever.
Rating:
Summary: Diversity Within Today's Schools
Review: "On the Fringe" is a book of short stories compiled by different authors. The stories do contain one central topic, youth that are considered outsiders. These outsiders face many different problems. One story focuses on hygiene problems, one is about a boy that is short, thin, and is nervous around his peers, and yet another is about an outcast who took his aggression out with a gun at school. These stories did not all focus on one person; several had a cluster of individuals that were ins ome way or another ostricized by the seemingly perfect in-crowd.
We all read this book with deep interest. We felt that it was easy to read due to the fact that they were short stories. We had a desire to find out what happened in each one. We felt like it was very informative. The stories definitely opened our eyes to a variety of issues that neither one of us had ever imagined existed. We, as a society, tend to close our eyes to so much that is unpleasant. This book brings out that side, the one that no one wants to realize exists.
As for liking this book and recommending it, we thought that it was very enlightening and educational, but we would not recommend it for school-aged children to read. It touches on many topics that do happen in our schools, and we do not think that children should be given examples of how to humiliate other students. This is a book that we would recommend to adults. This book illustrates what is going in the heads of kids that do not fit the perfect student role model. These are everyday young adults with problems. This collaboration of stories opened our eyes, and hopefully helped us to know who we, as future teachers, are looking for that need extra love and attention. Maybe with our eyes open, we will be able to counteract some of the negativity that these future adults undergo and keep them from performing a drastic event that will seal their fate forever.
Rating:
Summary: Diversity Within Today's Schools
Review: "On the Fringe" is a book of short stories compiled by different authors. The stories do contain one central topic, youth that are considered outsiders. These outsiders face many different problems. One story focuses on hygiene problems, one is about a boy that is short, thin, and is nervous around his peers, and yet another is about an outcast who took his aggression out with a gun at school. These stories did not all focus on one person; several had a cluster of individuals that were ins ome way or another ostricized by the seemingly perfect in-crowd.
We all read this book with deep interest. We felt that it was easy to read due to the fact that they were short stories. We had a desire to find out what happened in each one. We felt like it was very informative. The stories definitely opened our eyes to a variety of issues that neither one of us had ever imagined existed. We, as a society, tend to close our eyes to so much that is unpleasant. This book brings out that side, the one that no one wants to realize exists.
As for liking this book and recommending it, we thought that it was very enlightening and educational, but we would not recommend it for school-aged children to read. It touches on many topics that do happen in our schools, and we do not think that children should be given examples of how to humiliate other students. This is a book that we would recommend to adults. This book illustrates what is going in the heads of kids that do not fit the perfect student role model. These are everyday young adults with problems. This collaboration of stories opened our eyes, and hopefully helped us to know who we, as future teachers, are looking for that need extra love and attention. Maybe with our eyes open, we will be able to counteract some of the negativity that these future adults undergo and keep them from performing a drastic event that will seal their fate forever.
Rating:
Summary: Touching, honest and engaging
Review: As a middle school teacher I am constantly trying to help those who are on the fringe to feel more included and to understand that being on the fringe is not such a bad thing! This book does just that! It is an amazing book and I am using it to lead discussions in my reading class. I have kids fighting over it at the end of each class period. The stories are real and my middle school students are able to connect with them. I highly recommend it!
Rating: 
Summary: Being unpopular is not enough...
Review: I found this book to be well written and engaging, but being unpopular is not enough to hold a book together. For example, I just read "SIGHTS" (Vance), and it was the same theme, but had the depth of character and landscape to make it work. Teens appreciate literature, which "FRINGE" is not.
Rating: 
Summary: Throw it away
Review: I thought the book was a bunch of bolagna. I didnt care for it at all and someone should burn it. The only reason i liked it was because it had a bunch of short stories and not just one big book with a bunch of chapters. It had a lot of truth in it which is the only good part of the book. The book was basically about kids that dont fit in and are outsiders. Who ever get's this bpok should throw it away or tearit and burn it into peices.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book for Sharing
Review: I used selections from this collection as read-alouds for my 8th grade language arts class (I end class most days with a read-aloud, while students keep a response journal). Because of the subject matter, these stories definitely engage the students and keep their attention. Do they all "get" the message? No, but I guarantee that when you look around the room and see the eyes of those two or three students who are themselves on the fringe, you will know it was worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: in defense of this book
Review: I'm writing this because I'm aghast at some of the other reviews of "On the Fringe." It's a bad book because of its length? Not necessarily. Most of its stories are shorter than the average New Yorker fiction piece, and there's no need to read them all to enjoy the book. Short story collections don't have to be read straight through like a chapter book.Another complaint: It shouldn't have examples of how kids humiliate other kids lest it give them ideas on how to be mean? Well, guess what? Kids don't need a book to teach them meanness. They pick it up from peers and TV quite nicely, and also from their families and society at large. Just look at the current news, whether international, national or local. This book is a good start for a discussion about school violence, such as Columbine. The authors get inside the heads of their teenage protagonists nicely and for the most part, the dialogue and actions come across as authentic, not forced. A brief bio follows each story, explaining why the author chose the subject he or she did. Standouts in my opinion were "Standing on the Roof Naked" by Francess Lantz, "A Letter from the Fringe" by Joan Bauer, and "Through a Window" by Angela Johnson. The last is unique to the book because it focuses on a character who might be classified as a bystander, not a victim or bully.
Rating:
Summary: On the Fringe
Review: On the Fringe is a collection of short stories written for and about teens. All of the stories share a common crisis. The main characters in each story feel like outsiders. As these teens are teased and ridiculed, the reader quickly relates to these outsiders and the pain they feel.
We (two education majors at Univ. of Mississippi) would NOT recomend this book simply because of the overuse of bad language. The authors wrote brillian stories and addressed a critical issue facing teens. Yet the language is not only too fowl but unessisary. We will not use this book in our classroom.
Rating:
Summary: On the Fringe
Review: On the Fringe is a collection of short stories written for and about teens. All of the stories share a common crisis. The main characters in each story feel like outsiders. As these teens are teased and ridiculed, the reader quickly relates to these outsiders and the pain they feel.
We (two education majors at Univ. of Mississippi) would NOT recomend this book simply because of the overuse of bad language. The authors wrote brillian stories and addressed a critical issue facing teens. Yet the language is not only too fowl but unessisary. We will not use this book in our classroom.
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