What a cool premise for a book. I think this one would be engaging for a wide swathe of students at the high school and middle school levels. Ed is a pitiable but lovable character, and Zusak has crafted some other memorable ones as well (my favorite is The Doorman). This book has a lot of the same feel of the Da Vinci Code or one of those Dan Brown books, but, for me, its infinitely more enjoyable. This is not nearly as predictable, and has much more interesting characters and conflicts. I don't mean to trash Dan Brown, just voicing my opinion that I would much rather use this book in a class than those ones.
Anyway, while I was reading this book, I couldn't help but notice all of the wonderful Australian slang that Ed and the other characters use. I think this book would go well with a few lessons on English slang from countries around the world. I'm sure there are hilarious, interesting and provocative usages of the English language out there that we don't know about here in the US. Moreover, I think it would highly engage kids. When I was in middle school, if someone told me new ways of saying the things I always say, I would have tried to incorporate them into my speech immediately.
Of course, the instructor would have to carefully choose what words to include, but I have no doubt that it would be relatively easy to find a list of sayings from English-speaking countries around the world that are all school appropriate.
Anyway, I really like this book. It has a nice mix of literary elements and the pace feels right. I don't frequent the mystery/thriller genre too often, but with I am the Messenger, I have truly enjoyed myself.
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