This Is What I Did

Book: This Is What I Did
Author: Ann Dee Ellis
Audience: Junior High
In a Nutshell: boy who won't speak up becomes junior high pariah

Something bad happened to Logan, but he doesn't want to talk about it. He's always been kind of a shy kid, but now he avoids everyone, stays in his room as much as possible, and tries to stay out out of his new tormentors' way. After The Incident, his parents even moved across town for a "fresh start," but the first thing his mom does is call all the neighbors and tell them what happened and that he's deeply depressed, so it's not very fresh. It involved his best friend Zyler, and now people avoid Logan like the plague. The crueler ones call him a sicko, and crapstock, and a pervert. Boy Scouts is torture, especially since the Scout Leader is the head tormenter's dad, but Logan goes just so his dad thinks he's okay.

There is one girl, Laurel, who is nice to him. She's obsessed with palindromes, and they trade notes of new examples. Through his friendship with Laurel, his participation in the school production of Peter Pan (he's a Lost Boy), and the therapy his parents take him to, Logan is gradually able to come out of his self-imposed solitude and talk about Zyler, Zyler's abusive father, and what happened that night.

Quick, engrossing read with no real chapters. Short paragraphs are interspersed with silhouette icons that sometimes mean nothing at first, but gradually take on significance. Logan has an awkward, honest voice, and very sympathetic. He really is a lost boy through much of the book, which makes the steps he takes in the end toward knowing who he is and exerting himself very satisfying to read.