Free Lunch

Free Lunch is a memoir about growing up in poverty. Rex is embarrassed that he has to get free lunch. His family has been struggling for a long time and he has seen the stress and despair that accompanies that. He has also had to make sacrifices and he doesn’t have the same opportunity that his classmates have. The stress brings out the worst in his parents and their anger causes them to be violent towards each other, sometimes even Rex.

You really felt for the characters. This story was written with so much heart.

A middle school novel that follows Rex Ogle's entry into middle school. This memoir is difficult to read at times because it is so real. The sixth grader feels like he’s the only one with experiencing hopeless or embarrassing situations on a daily basis. However, among the heart-breaking, gut-wrenching moments, there are glimmers of hope. Rex’s resiliency comes to the forefront and is an inspiration for a variety of readers, including students, teachers, and parents.

You will NOT be able to put this book down! In this incredibly well-written memoir, author Rex Ogle shares his difficult upbringing in a way that middle grade students will be able to relate to without being overly graphic or harsh. Students who struggle with their inner emotions dealing with abuse and poverty will be validated that they are not alone dealing with these emotions. Ogle’s narrative shares a period of time what he wants most are new shoes and a lunch from home. As he shares this time in his life, you wonder how it will ever get better; you keep reading to see if it does.

This book was amazing! It should be part of every grade six curriculum. I can't wait for it to come out, so I can get my eleven year old a copy. Rex is a strong character, and I was able to relate with him throughout the entire novel. This is definitely my #1 read of the year.

Free Lunch by Rex Ogle is well-narrated gut punch: being poor, enduring abuse, suffering hunger, minding a toddler, living with psychologically unstable parents/step-parents, and surviving in a household unbalanced in nearly every conceivable manner is his way of life.

Having taught in a district where poverty is a thriving reality, I wasn’t caught so off-guard as I might have been otherwise. Rex Ogle’s middle school experiences were a step removed, though. In most of my elementary school experiences for example, the kids were just happy to get food and a “free lunch card” was often an enviable commodity. In Free Lunch though, Rex makes clear the stigma of “being poor” in an older age group. While the hunger persists, the desire to fit in and the adolescent self-consciousness add to feelings of anger, injustice, resentment, and a bevy of other negative emotions.

Mr Ogle brings these emotions to the forefront in his autobiographical account of going to middle school as a kid from a poor family. His struggles trying to fit in at school by hiding his free lunch status, staying immaculately clean despite having to wear secondhand clothing, and dawdling around the school until there weren’t any students around to see the place he called home. The prejudices weren’t limited to fellow students though; shopkeepers, teachers, and other parents were also sources of unrest.

Home life wasn’t any better for Rex: he was often left to watch over and care for his toddler half-brother, sometimes for days at a time without any adults present; he was responsible for taking out the trash, getting the mail, and balancing his mother’s checkbook; he suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his mother and stepfather. His story is accessible, engaging, and I’d recommend it to all students, teachers, and parents, but especially in those districts where income disparity is most prevalent.


Thanks to Norton Young Readers at W. W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for the provided e-ARC and the opportunity to read this book. My review is honest, unbiased, and voluntary. #NetGalley #FreeLunch

Rex Ogle's childhood pangs and pains of hunger, abject poverty, and abuse will bring hope to those who may be experiencing those realities, as well as empathy to those children more fortunate. I will use this title in my graduate children's literature class as an exemplary memoir for middle grades.