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Free Lunch

By Rex Ogle
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Free Lunch by Rex Ogle is a compelling memoir about Ogle's experiences during his sixth-grade year, where he navigates the challenges of living in poverty. The narrative captures his struggle to adjust to a new school while dealing with the stigma of receiving free lunch, highlighting themes of resilience, family dynamics, and the quest for dignity in difficult circumstances.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate heartfelt narratives about real-life challenges. It offers a moving and honest depiction of a boy's experience with poverty and struggle in middle school. Readers who connect with stories of resilience and personal growth will find this inspiring and enlightening.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Rex Ogle’s story of starting Year 7 on the free lunch programme is timely, heart-breaking and true.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Instead of giving him lunch money, Rex's mum has signed him up for free meals. As a poor kid in a wealthy school district, better-off kids crowd impatiently behind him as he tries to explain to the cashier that he's on the free meal programme. The lunch lady is hard of hearing, so Rex has to shout.

Free Lunch is the story of Rex's efforts to navigate his first semester of sixth grade—who to sit with, not being able to join the football team, Halloween in a handmade costume, classmates, and a teacher who take one look at him and decide he's trouble—all while wearing secondhand clothes and being hungry. His mum and her boyfriend are out of work, and life at home is punctuated by outbursts of violence. Halfway through the semester, his family is evicted and ends up in government-subsidised housing in view of the school. Rex lingers at the end of last period every day until the buses have left, so no one will see where he lives.

Unsparing and realistic, Free Lunch is a story of hardship threaded with hope and moments of grace. Rex's voice is compelling and authentic, and Free Lunch is a true, timely, and essential work that illuminates the lived experience of poverty in America.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Free Lunch by Rex Ogle is a powerful memoir depicting the author's own childhood experiences with poverty in America. The book is praised for its honest and gripping portrayal of the challenges faced by the protagonist as he navigates sixth grade while dealing with a chaotic home life and the stigma of receiving free meals. Readers appreciate Ogle's ability to infuse grace and humour into a poignant story, making it highly recommended for young readers aged 13 and up.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781324016946

Publisher: WW Norton & Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 15 October 2021

Country: United States

Imprint: WW Norton & Co

Audience: Children

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 15.0mm

Width: 140.0mm

Height: 211.0mm

Weight: 186g

Pages: 224

Collections

Children's Books Children’s & Teenage Non-Fiction Children’s, Teenage and Educational Rex Ogle

About the Author

Rex Ogle is the author of Free Lunch, which won the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award; Abuela Don’t Forget Me, a finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award; Punching Bag; and the novel When We Ride. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

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    In his award-winning memoir Free Lunch, Rex Ogle's abuela features as a source of love and support. In this companion-in-verse, Rex captures and celebrates the powerful presence of a woman he could always count on—giving him warm hugs and ear kisses, teaching him precious words in Spanish, bringing him to the library where he could take out as many books...
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    Punching Bag is the compelling true story of a high school career defined by poverty and punctuated by outbreaks of domestic abuse. Rex Ogle, who brilliantly mapped his experience of hunger in Free Lunch, here describes his struggle to survive; reflects on his complex, often paradoxical relationship with his passionate, fierce mother; and charts the trajectory of his stepdad's anger....
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    When Rex was outed the summer after he graduated high school, his father gave him a choice: he could stay at home, find a girlfriend, and attend church twice a week, or he could be gay—and leave. Rex left, driving toward the only other gay man he knew and a toxic relationship that would ultimately leave him homeless and desperate...
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    Sixth grade isn't as great as Rex thought it would be. He's the only kid who hasn't had a growth spurt, and the bullies won't let him forget it. His closest friend is unreliable, at best. And there's a cute girl in his class who may or may not like him back. With so much going on, everything is a...
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    On the first day of seventh grade, Rex encounters a bump in the road—a big angry pimple right in the centre of his forehead. And this is only the beginning of his problems. What follows is a frustrating battle with stubborn acne, body odour, and other embarrassments of puberty. Still struggling with a home life edging on the poverty line,...
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  • Fruitcake: A Graphic Novel (Four Eyes #3)
    Eighth grade isn’t off to a great start. Everyone but Rex seems to be coupling up, and he’s starting to feel like an outsider... until he meets Charlotte. She’s fearless, smart, pretty, and she likes him back. But as great as Charlotte is, there’s someone Rex can’t stop thinking about. Drew is Rex’s childhood best friend, so when he kisses...
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