What Mr. Mattero Did
By: Priscilla Cummings




Set in modern day time, Oakdale, California the story of what Mr. Mattero did comes out. Three 7th grade girls at Oakdale Middle School finally get the guts to tell their principal about what the music teacher, Fred Mattero, did to them. They never think twice about all the gossip and flak that will come out of this. Parents go ballistic. Kids harass them. Half the people think they’re lying; the other people are behind them 100%. But what really happened in the music room that day? The plot gets even more confusing as the story goes on. Told by Claire, one of the three 7th graders, and Melody, Mr. Mattero’s daughter, the reader gets to see both sides of this very complex, private situation.


“I feel uncomfortable in my own skin.” Claire thought the night she called Detective Daniels. She finally realized exactly what was going on and it was killing her inside. The author of What Mr. Mattero Did was really good at keeping you wondering about what will happen next. She adds little twists and turns in there so you always think someone else is lying. But never know who until the very end. She also made it easy to follow along the two different storylines, Claire’s and Melody’s, by not having a bunch of different characters.


Similar to the book Peeling the Onion by Wendy Orr, What Mr. Mattero Did has the same theme of courage. Courage: the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery. Peeling the Onion, the main character gets into a car accident and has to learn to walk again. She faces those difficulties with courage. Claire, who faces the trouble of switching schools and trying to hide her secret, also displays the theme of courage. Although their struggles to overcome their respective difficulties are different, they are both trying to accomplish the same thing; overcome the obstacles in their way, and to do that involves courage.