What Happened to Rachel Riley? by Claire Swinarski
Anna has moved with her family from Chicago to Wisconsin. She is starting 8th grade. She is given an assignment in one of her classes, an Un-essay. They have to pick a social topic and present it in any way but an essay. I love the thought, but it was so open-ended. There were so many choices, and you had the entire semester to work on them. Kids had done projects like “Visiting a prison and interviewing an incarcerated person” or “Creating a podcast about your family’s immigration experience” in the past. I would be so worried that my project would be too simple.
Anna was trying to think of what she wanted to do when the school announcements started. They would announce any student birthdays. She had been surprised that some kids clapped for her when she had her birthday. She was a new student and didn’t know anyone at the school. It was sweet that everyone got a little attention on their birthday. Well, everyone but Rachel Riley. No one said anything when Rachel’s birthday was announced, not a peep. It was weird. Why did no one give her any attention? If the new girl who doesn’t know anyone gets some appreciation, why not Rachel? Anna gets a little curious, so she starts to investigate and sees that Rachel used to be super popular. Her social media shows her hanging out with everyone in the past, but that suddenly stopped. Now no one talks to her or even answers Anna’s questions about her. It’s like they all pretend she doesn’t exist.
Anna decides that it will be her project. She is going to investigate “What Happened to Rachel Riley?” Of course, this is quickly shut down by her teacher. It makes sense; you can’t do a project on another person in your school. So, Anna has to pick a new project, but she keeps up her investigation. It is weird; no one will talk about it, not even Rachel. I would be curious as well! I work in a middle school, and these kids love to talk and gossip. I would be amazed if they all agreed to not speak about something.
Little by little, a lot of middle school drama is revealed. As someone who works in a middle school, I find it a little hard to hear what some of these kids are dealing with. I know I have seen some kids do things that looked like bullying, but when I ask the possible bullied kid in private, they say it was all a joke or that it was all in fun. They don’t want to get anyone in trouble. I don’t know how much I can help except to say, “I don’t want to see that behavior”. It makes me mad that I can’t do too much if kids aren’t comfortable talking with me. I try to ensure that kids find at least one teacher or adult at the school they feel comfortable enough to speak with about these things.
Things do get a little crazy, and the kids might have dealt with things in not the best of ways, but I was proud of them for trying in their own way to right these wrongs. I was glad that even though they didn’t make the best choices, it brought the issues to light. The ending wasn’t all happiness and roses, but there was the start of things getting better. It forced everyone, including the adults, to pay attention.
One of the things at the end of the book that caught my attention was what seemed to be the use of restorative justice. People were given a chance to voice their concerns and work on making things better. My school is currently working on using restorative justice, and I would love to see what I saw in this book.
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