Probably Still Nick Swansen

By Virginia Euwer Wolff

Book Overview

Nick Swansen pretty much knows what it means to be Special Ed.: You can't drive, even if you're sixteen and your parents have two cars; the regular kids in school don't talk to you much; and even if you can memorize every fact about amphibians, it's hard to make sense of all the other stuff swirling in your mind. What he doesn't know is whether being Special Ed. means you shouldn't go to the prom. But since no rule says you can't, Nick decides to ask Shana.
But the prom doesn't turn out at all the way Nick expects it to, and everything bad seems to get all mixed up together: the prom, what Shana does, and the terrible thing that happened to Nick's sister nine years ago. Nick doesn't want to think about any of it, but he begins to realize that unless he makes peace with all the memories that trouble him, they will haunt him forever....

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689852266
• ISBN13: 9780689852268
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

review

this was a great book about a special ed. child who wants to just be normal.

Great Book

I liked this book a lot. More Kids should read it.

Very thoughtful

I was reading this for the second time because of my homework. I was asked to find a story that's about a teenager having trouble with emotions and learned to deal with it effectively. I think this is a really good book for YA.

I would make it assigned reading!

But I'm not a teacher, not yet, only a teaching assistant and in graduate school to get a teaching credential in special ed. A few things have changed in the field since Wolff published this in 1988, but the fundamental truth is there. However, if I were a teacher I would assign this book to struggling readers in a heartbeat. In fact, it'd probably even be more useful for "regular" kids. The cover of my copy reads: "Nick has a problem./ No... problems." How he deals with his problems should be instructive to everybody. Much more instructive than To Kill a Mockingbird, in my opinion.

Nick brings understanding

I thought this was a really good book. I felt like I actually knew what it was like to be learning disabled. This book has everything from death of a sibling to being stood up for the prom.