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I’m so glad to take part in this book club! Several years ago, I changed my stock response when people ask what books Gordon Korman is known for. I used to say the Macdonald Hall series, and later the Island trilogy or Slacker series. Now, I usually say RESTART, because everyone has heard of it. Probably not a big surprise given RESTART’s apparently permanent spot on the New York Times’s Best Sellers list of middle grade paperbacks.

RESTART has an iconic cover. The broken glasses are worthy of some comments on their own (I’ll get back to that) but the cover design also ushered in a new look for Scholastic’s treatment of GRK books that has continued at least seven years since RESTART’s release. Since then, most Scholastic-original Korman covers have had a one-color background with a single, simple (and often symbolic) image. Broken glasses on RESTART… toy soldiers on WAR STORIES… paper chain on LINKED… fallout shelter welcome mat and stairs on THE FORT… bike with backwards shadow on MIXED UP… Groucho glasses on FAKER. Even the fonts are “branded” for these books, with a freehand all-caps font that is consistent on these titles, and a unique treatment of the author’s name that started with this cover and has carried over.

I come to this book club already familiar with the story: I read RESTART when it was originally released and have more recently listened to the audiobook. When RESTART came out, I had read most of GRK’s previous books and was already familiar with his style. And my worldview as an older reader is much more Dr. Fitzwallace or Tina Ambrose (adult) and less Chase Ambrose or Shoshanna Weber (student). So I’m really interested to read everyone’s impressions of the book based on unique perspectives.

Which brings up a topic I want to know more about. Okay, about those broken glasses: Did pre-amnesiac Chase bully some nerd by breaking his glasses? Or are the broken specs symbolic of his own tumble off the roof? The image is immediately recognizable and compelling… it definitely makes me want to see what the book is about… but iirc Chase doesn’t wear glasses, so I’m not sure it actually represents the story all that well.

I’ll check back in later with some thoughts on Chapter One, but I wanted to at least get the discussion started!