Summer Book Study: The Emancipation of Evan Walls

Evan's giftedness really stands out to me in Chapter 3 with his voracious consumption of any written text he can get his hands on, his rapid vocabulary growth, and his appetite to learn new things far beyond the interests of his peers and even surpassing the adults. He is happy to be alone and is fulfilled by the act of learning new things. And so it is so hard to see that passion doused or ridiculed by those around him who are threatened by his success, by the changes in his abilities and by their perceived relative inadequacies. His teacher takes advantage of him, his peers call him a rat and accuse him of 'speaking white' and his parents prioritize his brother. And he is only in 5th grade! I am broken-hearted for him but at the same time so impressed by his tough, determined core.