Review: Restart

Restart by Gordon Korman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read my first Gordon Korman book a year ago.... I know late to the party. I loved the Mastermind trilogy. I ordered all his books that my distributor had in stock and this was one of those books. I was immediately intrigued.
The premise is that a horrible bully wakes up from an accident with total amnesia. People are afraid of him and small children cry when he is near and he has no clue why. He starts from scratch and makes friends that his football buddies tormented.
This story is great on many levels. For one, I really like the notion that we can reinvent ourselves. This wasn't the case here necessarily, but at one point it was stated that he pretty much got a do-over on his life. This is also a story of redemption and forgiveness. There is true change and through actions feelings change, including the feelings of those once bullied. I don't think we as adults necessarily would be so willing to forgive.
It also explores in a small way that we really know so little about the brain and what a traumatic injury to the brain can do to a person's personality.
I had started this back several months ago and quit reading it for a variety of reasons, but one of the students recently read it and told me I should finish it because it was very good and she had read it in two days. I will be very glad to tell her tomorrow that I finished the book, and I agree it is really good.

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