Review:

Amber and her mom are temporarily homeless – just until her mom can find them a place to stay, which she keeps promising will be soon. In the mean time, they’re sleeping in the school bus that her mom drives. Amber’s group of friends are the other kids who don’t quite fit in at her school – a kid who uses a wheelchair and his brother, a kid with Autism, and the only African American kid in the whole school. The rest of the cast includes her lovable dog, a Vietnam vet with a passion for green tea and haikus, and a smart, strong lawyer who won’t give up on Amber.

In this book, we walk with Amber through the halls of her school, seeing the people who love her and the people who don’t acknowledge she exists. We see Amber’s relentless positivity being challenged when tragedy hits her life. We watch Amber slide into depression. We feel her friends and the caring adults in her life come alongside her to help her get back on her feet. Sorta Like a Rock Star doesn’t pull any punches – it shows what it’s like to experience homelessness, to go through grief, to be depressed, and to have to figure out how to keep going.

Favorite Passage:

We’re celebrating our freedom. We’re celebrating our ability to be kids when everything is trying to take that away from us. It’s a choice, Ty. We can do whatever we want.
– Chapter 59

What I Loved Most:

I came across Sorta Like a Rock Star while planning a social justice book club for teens, and loved the way it showcased homelessness and mental illness in a real way. A 2017 study found that over the course of a 12 month period, one out of every thirty kids aged 13-17 in America experienced homelessness. That’s about 700,000 high school kids who were homeless over the year that they measured. Homelessness is a real problem facing so many of our students, and I appreciate the way this book shines a light on what it’s like to be a homeless student.

Read this book if you like:

Unique protagonists, accurate portrayals of homelessness, creating a family of choice

Book Details:

• Author: Matthew Quick
• Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company
• Date of Publication: May 1, 2010
• Age Recommendation: High School
• Find Sorta Like a Rock Star on Amazon if you’d like to own a copy!
• Check out Sorta Like a Rock Star on Worldcat to find it at a library near you!