Linked

 Linked by Gordon Korman 246 pp.

This was the last book for the Treehouse Book Club. I think this is an excellent story about middle schoolers learning about racism and intolerance first hand when swastikas begin appearing in their school. The vandalism also brings to light an incident in the town's history that many want to keep quiet. The kids step up to combat the problem by coming together in a project to tangibly show how large 6,000,000 (the number of Jews who died in the Holocaust) is by making paper chains with that many links. With the help of the town and people across the company and the world they reach their goal. When Link, the most popular kid in 7th grade and a known trouble maker learns he is of Jewish ancestry, it changes his life. Eventually the perpetrators of the vandalism are found with shocking results. The story is told from the points of view of several of the seventh grade students. A worthy read.