.1875 5.5 in 0.6875 in 5.5 in .

1875

.1875
PRAISE FOR SIDETRACKED
”
n g. e r

ASHER
ALSC NOTABLE BOOK
i
ABA INDIES INTRODUCE TITLE sitt i nn
n one onor w
“An entertaining story about a boy picking his way through i H
ad ry
the potholes and pitfalls of puberty.” t I re N e w b e
— RICHARD PECK, NEWBERY MEDAL WINNER l tha tim
e
n ove , t w o -
n did MIDT
ple . S C H
IF MIDDLE SCHOOL WERE A RACE, Joseph Friedman s
“A RY D
A
wouldn’t even be in last place—he’d be on the sidelines. With an —G
overactive mind and phobias of everything from hard-boiled eggs
to gargoyles, he struggles to understand his classes, let alone his
fellow classmates. So he spends most of his time avoiding school
bully Charlie Kastner and hiding out in the Resource Room, a
safe place for misfit kids like him.
But then, on the first day of seventh grade, two important
things happen. First, his Resource Room teacher practically

8.25 in
forces him to join the school track team, and second, he meets
Heather, a crazy-fast runner who isn’t going to be pushed around
by Charlie Kastner or anybody else.
With a new friend and a new team, Joseph finds himself off
the sidelines and in the race (quite literally) for the first time.
Is he a good runner? Well, no, he’s terrible. But the funny thing
about running is, once you’re in the race, anything can happen.

FOLLOW DIANA HARMON ASHER ONLINE BONUS FEATURES

dianaharmonasher.com SIDETRACKED DISCUSSION GUIDE
Facebook: DianaHAsher Q&A WITH DIANA HARMON ASHER

amuletbooks.com
COVER ILLUSTRATION © 2018 JIM TIERNEY
COVER DESIGN BY SIOBHÁN GALLAGHER @abramskids
COVER COPYRIGHT © 2018 AMULET BOOKS U.S. $7.99 Can. $9.99 U.K. £5.99
ISBN 978-1-4197-3139-6

PRINTED IN U.S.A

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CV-Sidetracked-PB.indd 1 7/30/18 4:38 PM
 Praise for Sidetracked

ABA Indies Introduce title

ALSC Notable Children’s Book

“Heartwarming and funny, Sidetracked is the book we all wish

we had read in seventh grade.” —Gitty Daneshvari, author of
School of Fear and The League of Unexceptional Children

“Just read it! Diana Harmon Asher has written a witty, observant,
and sensitive novel.”
—Susan Isaacs, New York Times bestselling author

“Joseph’s first-person voice is fresh and authentic, and his

character arc is immensely satisfying.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“The characters in Asher’s debut novel are likable and

approachable, and the story is absorbing and moves quickly.”
—School Library Journal

“Natural-sounding narrative with a good amount of humor.”

—The Horn Book

“Joseph’s first-person narrative engages readers on

page one and never lets up.”
—Booklist
 Discussion Questions
for Sidetracked

1. What comparison does Joseph make to describe his

middle-school experience? What does he convey with

that comparison?
2. How can we describe the reactions to Heather in the first
three chapters? How does her being a girl impact the
way people react to her?
3. What challenges do we learn that Joseph and Heather have
in common? How are their challenges different?
4. Why is it difficult for Joseph to form friendships, even with
others who are trying to be kind to him?
5. Based on Joseph’s description at the beginning of
Chapter
6, how would you describe Mrs. Fishbein?
What
does she have in common with Joseph?
6. How do Joseph’s classmates generally perceive what he
is doing in school? How does he explain what he is doing
at those moments?
7. Throughout the book, what role do adults play in the social
division that we see between groups of kids?
8. How does the author use sensory details to help tell the
story? What purposes do these details serve?
9. What does Joseph mean when he says, “Maybe I’ve had
enough
years of personal defeat and I’m ready to give
shared misery a try”? Why is “shared misery” appealing?
10. What’s the importance of Mrs. T’s quote, “Joseph did what
Joseph could do today”?
11. How does the retirement home remind Joseph of middle
school? Why does he say, “I’ve gotten to help Grandpa with
his jailbreak after all”?
12. When Joseph wants to quit, what makes Heather’s pep
talk effective?
13. Why is the uniform so important to Joseph? What does it
symbolize for him?
14. Throughout the book, what is it about running that gives
Joseph a sense of belonging that he hadn’t found before?
15. What are the different feelings that Joseph has about the
encouragement he gets after his first race?
16. In Chapter 18, what is the “problem” that Joseph identifies
a bout cross country as a sport? Do you see that as a problem?
17. What is the significance of Heather’s name? How does it fit
her personality?
18. Why does Heather talk to Joseph the way she does at the
Brockton meet?
19. How do Joseph and Heather each show a different side of
themselves at the league meet?
20. How does Grandpa explain Joseph’s reaction to the gun?
How does this explanation help Joseph see himself
differently?

21. What do Joseph’s actions at the end of the book show us
about him as a person?
 Author Q&A
An interview with Diana Harmon Asher
1. How did you come up with the idea for Sidetracked, and
for your main character, Joseph?

One of the things that I love about the sport of cross coun-
try is how it can turn the most unlikely athletes into runners.
Joseph sees himself as the worst athlete on the planet, and
joining a sports team is the last thing he expects to happen in
seventh grade. I wanted to tell the story from Joseph’s point of
view, to portray the world as he saw and felt it—including the
anxieties, the confusions, and self-doubt. As I wrote, Joseph
developed a unique personality, with lots of peculiarities, but
lots of strengths, too. When Heather and Grandpa entered
the storyline, I realized that a theme common to all of them
was the way expectations weigh us all down. I tried to write a
story that showed each of them trying to reconcile who they
are with what they are expected to be.

2. Did you know how the novel would end before you start-
ed writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

That’s a really interesting question. I knew that I wanted

Joseph to grow, and to have a victory, but in a realistic way.
I didn’t want him to join the team and suddenly discover
a hidden athletic talent that makes him “okay.” But I also
didn’t want to give him some consolation prize, like the
sportsmanship award. He needed to come through for
Heather, and also prove something to himself, but he had to
do it using the traits we’ve seen in him throughout the story,
and what he’s learned from Coach T and his teammates. I’ve
been to a lot of meets (all three of my sons ran cross country),
and it’s common for the faster runners to “lap,” or overtake
the slower runners. That gave me a chance to have Joseph
cross paths with faster runners during the final meet, but it
took a while to figure out exactly what would happen there. I
also went to a middle-school league meet to cheer on a team
that my son was coaching. Watching the finish, I realized that
there are ways to earn a “win” while still not being anywhere
near the fastest one out there.

3. Why did you choose running as the focus of the book?

Cross country and track-and-field are sports that take in

all those kids who have been cut from basketball, soccer,
baseball. A lot of kids’ hearts are broken around seventh
grade, when they’re told they can’t play those sports for their
school. Cross country and track is where they find their
“team.” There are also some really terrific athletes—boys
and girls—who choose cross country and track, so there’s a
great mix of talents and abilities. I also love the concept of
the PR—the Personal Record. The idea of “doing your best”
is great, but trying for a Personal Record is more than that. It
means that your goal is to improve, to resist the urge to quit,
to persevere and do better than you did last time. There’s
nothing wrong with competing with others—racing can be
incredibly exciting! But for a kid like Joseph, striving for a PR
can be so important, as a place to start. I have to admit, I also
saw so many comic possibilities in the sport—goose poop on
the track, mud on the trails, tiny little running shorts. And
really, who can resist writing about a sport that has a term
like “fartlek?”

4. Nothing is going right for Joseph until Mrs. T inspires

and pushes him. Did you have a teacher like that?

When I wrote the acknowledgments for Sidetracked, I realized

that the first people I had to thank were my favorite teachers—
from elementary school all the way through college. They
were kind, creative, and supportive. In fact, I sent my first-
and fifth-grade teachers an early reading copy of the book,
and it was an incredible experience to reconnect with them.
That said, my needs were very different from Joseph’s.
Unlike Joseph, academics and school life came easily to me.
The teacher who encourages Joseph—Mrs. T—was actually
inspired by one of the incredible resource room teachers
in my sons’ school—Nancy Tannenbaum. She was quite a
character—loving, talented, and feisty. She understood kids
like Joseph. They were “her” kids, and she would fight for
them like a mother tiger protecting her cubs. Sadly, she passed
away a few years ago, but her students and their parents will
never forget her. I think she would have recognized parts of
herself in Sidetracked’s “Mrs. T,” and I hope she would have
loved her as much as I do.

5. What was your process for capturing a seventh-grade

boy’s inner thoughts?

One of my writing workshop buddies recently pointed out

how much I’m like Joseph. I don’t have ADD, I’m not a sev-
enth-grade boy, I didn’t really have trouble making friends.
But I do worry a lot, and I guess I observe things in a very par-
ticular way. When Charlie’s football cleat lands on the bee,
for instance, Joseph’s reaction is exactly how I would react.
Poor bee! Is it squashed? Is it trapped? Can I save it? Please,
let it be okay. I guess I just extended that thinking through
the lens of Joseph’s personality. I’m also the mother of three
sons, and I’ve tried to be around and involved, and to listen a
lot. So, in an odd way, I felt right at home in the hallways and
sports fields of middle school.

6. What do you hope that a reader of Sidetracked who does

not have ADD will get from your book (besides an enter-
taining read)?

I hope the book will make readers think about giving other
people a chance—and giving themselves a chance. ADD is
just a part of Joseph. There are so many quirks, differences
and talents that make each person unique. Joseph is more
self-aware than most kids, and maybe readers will look at
their own challenges, try to understand them, and even laugh
a little bit. I hope they will get the message that you can see
humor in just about any situation. I also hope that readers
will think about society’s expectations of gender, physical ap-
pearance, and success. And yes, I hope they are entertained,
and finish the book smiling.

7. What are you working on now?

I’m working on another middle-grade novel, this time told

from a girl’s point of view. I don’t want to say too much about
it, because I’m still working it out, but it moves from the world
of middle-school running to the world of middle-school mu-
sical theater.

8. Anything else we should know?

This is my first published novel, and I’ve been waiting and

working for a long, long time. It’s hard to convey how much
it means to me that Sidetracked has gotten such an enthusias-
tic reception. I’ve spoken with kids who tell me they trudged
through their summer reading assignments, then they flew
through Sidetracked and really loved it. Hearing that just
warms my heart.

Author Q&A courtesy of Dave Shallenberger, co-owner of Little

Shop of Stories (Decatur, Georgia); Bookselling This Week, a
publication of the American Booksellers Association; and Deborah
Kalb of deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com.
.1875 5.5 in 0.6875 in 5.5 in .1875

.1875
PRAISE FOR SIDETRACKED
”
n g. e r

ASHER
ALSC NOTABLE BOOK
i
ABA INDIES INTRODUCE TITLE sitt i nn
n one onor w
“An entertaining story about a boy picking his way through i H
ad ry
the potholes and pitfalls of puberty.” t I re N e w b e
— RICHARD PECK, NEWBERY MEDAL WINNER l tha tim
e
n ove , t w o -
n did MIDT
ple . S C H
IF MIDDLE SCHOOL WERE A RACE, Joseph Friedman s
“A RY D
A
wouldn’t even be in last place—he’d be on the sidelines. With an —G
overactive mind and phobias of everything from hard-boiled eggs
to gargoyles, he struggles to understand his classes, let alone his
fellow classmates. So he spends most of his time avoiding school
bully Charlie Kastner and hiding out in the Resource Room, a
safe place for misfit kids like him.
But then, on the first day of seventh grade, two important
things happen. First, his Resource Room teacher practically

8.25 in
forces him to join the school track team, and second, he meets
Heather, a crazy-fast runner who isn’t going to be pushed around
by Charlie Kastner or anybody else.
With a new friend and a new team, Joseph finds himself off
the sidelines and in the race (quite literally) for the first time.
Is he a good runner? Well, no, he’s terrible. But the funny thing
about running is, once you’re in the race, anything can happen.

FOLLOW DIANA HARMON ASHER ONLINE

dianaharmonasher.com
Facebook: DianaHAsher

COVER ILLUSTRATION © 2018 JIM TIERNEY

COVER DESIGN BY SIOBHÁN GALLAGHER
COVER COPYRIGHT © 2018 AMULET BOOKS

.1875
CV-Sidetracked-PB.indd 1 7/30/18 4:38 PM