Posted: 11/10/19

Posted by John David Anderson is set in a high school where cell phones are banned after a cheating incident blows up into a viral embarrassment. In a protest a new form of mass communication springs up a the school, Post It Notes left on the lockers of people.

Basically the book plays out the ups and downs of this alternate form of communication until it too gets out of control. These notes too become a conduit for bulling and shaming.

The narrator, a white middle class male, doesn't really ever get emotionally involved in note taking beyond reporting what happens and how it seems to be affecting others. He's only upset when he's implicated in some of the worst aspects of the note posting.

I have similar problems with Posted as I do with Restart by Gordon Korman. The difference here is it's not clear how much active participating in the worst of these bullying / rumor spreading incidents the protagonist has done. That said, he also doesn't do much to counter act the worst of it either. He takes the toxicity of his high school as normal kids being kids even when there are others insisting that there's nothing normal about it.

As with Ms. Bixby's Last Day (2016), the author sums everything up into a happy ending where everyone learns something from the horrible school year. It's trite but it will probably hit a chord with a core audience.

Three stars

Comments (2)

Comment #1: Monday, November 11, 2019 at 11:37:22

sherry @ fundinmental

It does sound interesting. I like the idea of post it notes all over the place. I can see walking down the hall at school with all the pretty pieces of paper...too bad they are saying bad things.

Comment #2: Friday, November 15, 2019 at 11:33:00

Pussreboots

Initially they are saying good things and some of them do all the way through. It's more about how things can get out of control.