Isaiah Dunn Saves the Day

Baptist, Kelly J. Isaiah Dunn Saves ths Day
August 2, 2022 by Crown Books for Young Readers

Library Copy

Now that his family life is a little more stable, since his mother's stint in rehab after hs father's death in Isaiah Dunn is My Hero, Isaiah is able to concentrate more on his writing and his own life. Miz Rita is a huge help, watching his younger sister Charlie and doing the cooking so his mother, who is now in college and working as a TA, doesn't have to. Sneaky still has his candy resale business, but the two don't spend as much time together since Isaiah is working with Angel in a mentorship program. He's been pared with Kobe, who is not at all interested in reading, which shocks Isaiah, since he wants to be a writer when he grows up. Isaiah has a good role model in Rock at the New Growth barbershop who is trying to mentor Sneaky's older brother Antwan who is running with a problematic crowd. At first, dealing with Kobe seems like too much, so Isaiah drops out briefly, but playing football isn't as interesting as he thought. He goes back to mentoring, and makes some progress with Kobe, especially when he starts to make picture books starring a super hero character based on Kobe, the way his father told him stories when he was young. This takes a lot of time, thought, and makes Angel less than happy, since he's not able to work as much on the greeting cards that the two sell. Will Isaiah be able to balance all of the activities in his life?

Strengths: There are not a lot of books that deal with children balancing school and activities, but that is such an enormous part of middle school. Teachers will adore all of Isaiah's poetry, and his love of writing. His relationships with his friends and family interested me the most, and Miz Rita is a fascinating character, although we don't see quite as much of her. I've had a number of students with parents who have gone back to school, so that was a good inclusion. The mentorship program, with sixth graders pairing with third graders, is something I've seen in our district from time to time, but haven't read about as much. This was a worthy sequel to the first book. The cover is great. 
Weaknesses: This seemed a bit younger and slower than I would have liked, but I have some 8th grade boys who kept asking when this book would arrive, so it certainly has a lot of appeal!
What I really think: This is a really good length, and an appealingly complex story that has some funny moments along with the deeper issues. My students have a lot of book projects where they can pick any chapter book they want, and I think that this would lend itself well to this purpose, especially since Isaiah is such a well rounded character.