The Paper Cowboy is a book that I picked up because it sounded interesting during a bulk book sale; and boy was it worth it I absolutely loved this book and I was riding the highs and lows right along with the main character Tommy the entire time!
This book takes place in the 1950’s in the post war era. Based loosely on Kristen’s Father’s life, this is about a young boy whose sister is badly burned in a fire, and he must work to keep his already crumbling family together. WARNING there are SEVERAL scenes of violence against children (spanking, belt, slapping, etc. all which border on child abuse). Even though this book has a fairly easy reading level, I would suggest high school students to read independently and grade 8 (grade 7 only if they’re mature) as a read aloud in class so you can discuss the implications of what happens in these tougher scenes.
Overall as an adult this would get a 5/5 but as a teacher 4/5 for the abuse scenes being a little too mature for the average middle school classroom.