Me & Mr J was a fantastic read! Lara is 15/16, her life has changed drastically since her dad lost his job and to make things worse she is getting bullied. Lara shares her problems in her diary where she can be open about how bad everything is at home, and worse at school. Then the new young English teacher arrives, Mr Jagger. The one person who takes notice of Lara's potential, is kind to her and is on her wavelength. The one person who she falls madly in love with. The one person who she knows can't love her back. But when he does, she feels like a goddess, but is their relationship right?
The book tackled a controversial topic but was well written. We've all seen the news stories and read the articles about teachers and students who fall in love. But it was the first time I had read a fictional story that tackles such a taboo. It was interesting seeing it through Lara's eyes and it makes you re-think if student-teacher relationships are as gross as they are made out. It is wrong but when you read Lara's story you kind of wonder if what they had was love. What would be interesting is a book from Ben's (Mr J's) point of view as that would make it clearer what the relationship was like from his view. Not only did the book tackle a teacher-student relationship but bullying is also a big part of the story. Lara was right, you can't bully someone for the colour of their skin or there will be consequences but it seems perfectly fine to bully someone because of their hair colour!
You can understand why Lara could so easily fall in love with Mr J because her life was so difficult. Lara forgets about her worries when she's with him and from reading her diary entries you forget that it is wrong. It was a shame that it didn't end well with Lara and Mr J because even though it was wrong it's nice to have a happy ending. Great read 5/5 stars!
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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