Left Back!

Sweet Valley Kids #32

by Francine Pascal (Creator), Molly Mia Stewart, Ying-Hwa Hu (Illustrator)

There's a new boy in school named Kisho Murasaki. At first Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield and all their friends like Kisho a lot. But then everyone finds out that Kisho has been left back a year. Suddenly nobody wants to be his friend anymore because they think he's stupid. Elizabeth knows her classmetes are wrong about Kisho—but how can she prove it to them?

Genres: Childrens

71 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1992

About the author

Francine Paula Pascal was an American author best known for her Sweet Valley series of young adult novels. Sweet Valley High, the backbone of the collection, was made into a television series, which led to several spin-offs, including The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. Although most of these books were published in the 1980s and 1990s, they remained so popular that several titles were re-released decades later.

Reviews

[Ruvi Perera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot imagine how kids could be that rude! I'm glad that the teacher resolved it. I was really surprised to know that 7 year olds could be that judgmental.

[Kylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

sweetvalleyrecaps
Sweet Valley Kids 32 - Left back!
There’s a new boy in second grade - Kisho Murasaki. He’s slightly taller than the other boys, but everyone likes him. He’s really good at multiplication and art, but not great at reading. I think I see what’s going on here 🤔 Anyway, he’s having a birthday party this weekend and invites the class, and everyone is excited - until they learn he is NINE 😱😱 He was left back. Lila and others (including Jess) act like he has cooties (they actually call him dummy, it’s horrible), and refuse to go to his party. Of course Liz feels bad, and so, surprisingly, does Charlie Cashman - the class bully! I’m guessing he’s been left back too maybe? Charlie and Liz go to Kishos house and see cool Japanese stuff, and realise that Japanese is sooo different to English, and that’s why Kisho has trouble reading it. Charlie, Liz and Kisho have a great idea, but it’s a secret. Mrs Otis hears Caroline calling Kisho dumb and lectures the class on immigration (👏🏻👏🏻), and the next day, the secret is revealed - Kishos Japanese Grandfather and Charlie’s Italian Grandmother come in to talk about how they moved to America, and teach the kids ‘good’ in Japanese and Italian, everyone is so impressed they like Kisho again, and go to his party. Oh! And Alice talks about her ancestor - consistently! 👏🏻👏🏻 They can’t get Lila’s mother right but they got this 🤷🏼‍♀️ (second pic).
My rating - 5/10 - although I’m getting a little sick of the ‘pick on the different kid’ schtick, I liked Kisho and I liked that Charlie wasn’t a bully for once. Always love a good bad boy redemption arc 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Tara Calaby]

I think this does a great job of showing kids that being kept back a year doesn't necessarily mean that you're stupid—that there can be other reasons for being behind in school, like moving around a lot or, as in Kisho's case, not having English as your first language. I also really liked that Charlie was given a second dimension here.

Tell you what, though: the Sweet Valley elementary kids really are terrible bullies, who generally get away with their awful behaviour completely. I'd love to see them properly told off for being awful every once in a while!

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The one w/ the Japanese exchange student. I barely remember it, but it may have been that he was left back to learn more English, since it wasn't his first language.

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember the cover but just not the story