RESTART by Gordon Korman
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When he wakes up, he is in the hospital, surrounded by strangers. A woman is crying and calling him Chase, but the name doesn’t seem right. He looks in a mirror and realizes he doesn’t know himself. After falling off the roof, Chase has lost all memory of the first thirteen years of his life. What’s even stranger than not knowing people is that people do seem to know him. And most of them don’t like him–even seem afraid of him. The more he learns about himself, the more Chase dislikes himself. But how could that be? Did the fall change who he was? Or is Chase the bully still inside him somewhere? As he grows closer to the people who once feared him, Chase must figure out who he really is or risk hurting the people he cares about most.
A wonderful coming of age story in which a boy is able to rebuild himself, piecing together those parts of him that he likes and discovering a new capacity for compassion. It gives inspiration to all of us who fall short of our ideal hopes for ourselves and strive to be better friends and citizens. I highly recommend it to middle grade fans of realistic fiction.
Susan the Librarian 