Squint by Chad Morris and Shelly Brown

From Goodreads,

My name is Flint, but everyone in middle school calls me Squint because I’m losing my vision. I used to play football, but not anymore. I haven’t had a friend in a long time. Thankfully, real friends can see the real you, even when you can’t clearly see.

Flint loves to draw. In fact, he’s furiously trying to finish his comic book so he can be the youngest winner of the “Find a Comic Star” contest. He’s also rushing to finish because he has keratoconus—an eye disease that could eventually make him blind.

McKell is the new girl at school and immediately hangs with the popular kids. Except McKell’s not a fan of the way her friends treat this boy named Squint. He seems nice and really talented. He draws awesome pictures of superheroes. McKell wants to get to know him, but is it worth the risk? What if her friends catch her hanging with the kid who squints all the time?

McKell has a hidden talent of her own but doesn’t share it for fear of being judged. Her terminally ill brother, Danny, challenges McKell to share her love of poetry and songwriting. Flint seems like someone she could trust. Someone who would never laugh at her. Someone who is as good and brave as the superhero in Flint’s comic book named Squint.

Squint is the inspiring story of two new friends dealing with their own challenges, who learn to trust each other, believe in themselves, and begin to truly see what matters most.

Goodreads - Squint

I have this really bad habit of shopping Scholastic Reading Clubs like I'm shopping on Amazon.  I will just sit and scroll through the books and add them to my cart or my wishlist.  I tend to read more "girly" books because well... I'm a girl.  The longer I teach the more I have noticed that I need more books that are geared toward boys.  When I saw this book it caught my eye.  After reading the summary I knew it was a book I needed to read and hopefully add to my library.

Squint is about a young boy named Flint who has a rare eye condition that could one day leave him blind.  Flint loves comics and he loves to work on his own comic book.  He is frantically trying to finish his comic before his eyes fail and leave him blind.  In the midst of being an outcast and focusing on his comic, a girl named McKell comes over and sits with him one day at lunch.  Soon one day becomes two which then becomes an adventure.  Flint and McKell quickly become friends, but they soon learn they both have secrets and they both have obstacles to overcome.

This book left me with so many emotions.  I want to first talk about the character Danny and his role in this book.  Danny is McKell's sister and he has progeria, which is a disease that causes a child's body to age fast.  Danny had obstacles in his life, but he managed to make the best out of it and challenge people.  His challenges ranged from being funny to going on a new adventure to making a new friend.  Danny really pushed positivity and his character was hysterical and I felt like I would sit and watch his videos all day if they existed.  I think this positivity is so important because it really pulled multiple characters together.  Danny's positivity helped McKell deal with her challenges of making friends or trying out for the talent show.  But I think Danny's videos and positivity really helped Flint see that his life wasn't as bad as he thought it was and that he should take it day by day.  It really made me stop and think about all the times I've complained about stuff going on, when in reality my life could be a whole lot worse than what it is.  I felt like this positivity message was a big and important vibe in the book.  When the book started to get to a low point it felt like Danny's videos were worked into the story to bring light to the situation at hand.

I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this book.  It was well written and there was no inappropriate language.  I do want to talk about Flint and his comic book that he was creating.  I enjoyed getting to read the story while Flint was working on his comic.  I think it would be awesome for Chad Morris and Shelly Brown to create the comic that flint was creating and make it into a graphic novel.  It would be a great opportunity to have that crossover from fiction to the comic existing.

This book was packed with well rounded characters that I felt I could easily relate to and connect with.  The positivity throughout the book really kept me pushing forward and made me want to finish it as quickly as I could.  I think that some of my fifth grade boys are going to really like this book.  I give this 5 stars!