Life isn’t fair, Mark Holden knows that. The doctor says he has Asperger’s Syndrome, and nobody knows why. What they do know is Asperger’s makes it harder for Mark to understand how other people think, including teachers.
At a taekwondo school, though, you don’t have to figure out what people mean or how they think. It’s a physical activity. Everyone starts the exact same way, in a white uniform with a white belt. You’re only better if a belt you’ve earned says you are, and respect for others is a requirement. Mark likes that.
He thinks a roomful of white belts looks pretty much like a roomful of marshmallows, though. Not like the black belts his mom talks about, in the Olympics; not very tough at all. And who wants to be king of the marshmallows?
When he starts taekwondo, Mark discovers that he and four other kids from his school are in a class full of adults! They’ll have a lot to learn, the faster the better, about taekwondo and each other – but they’ll find there’s nothing like a little heat to make marshmallows stick together.
Episode #1
Ready! by Lydia Ondrusek (Ages 13+)
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Mark’s Asperger’s Syndrome makes things hard for him at school. Mark’s mom and dad think MORE school is the answer. They can’t be right–can they? When they enroll Mark in the new taekwondo school nearby, he finds that his class is filled with adults–and four kids from his school he’s never met before. So now he’s got to meet new people (ugh), learn MORE new skills (ack), and oh yeah…somewhere in there, he’s got to figure out how not to flunk English.
Episode #2
Block!
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Erin has never been secretive, but she’s starting to wonder; is it still keeping a secret if you just don’t tell anybody? What if nobody asks?
Could what Margret and her friends (or henchmen) are doing be Erin’s secret? Erin is being bullied at school. She hasn’t reported the abuse to anyone in charge, not her teachers, or her parents–she hasn’t even talked to her twin brother Tim about it. Erin believes her reasons for not discussing what’s going on are good. Or she did. She’s not so sure anymore.
The bullying has gone from insults to physical attacks that are getting dangerous. They’re bad enough that now Erin is scared to go to school. It’s stopped feeling like a safe place to be. Can what she’s learning in taekwondo help?
Episode #3
Punch!
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Ray’s parents are divorced and shuttling him back and forth. Nobody seems to realize how hard this has become for Ray. His only comforts are eating, and hiding out in video games. Now, gaming at school has gotten him suspended. Will taekwondo help him lose weight? Give him more discipline? His parents hope so. It’s the first thing they’ve agreed on in ages.
His gran doesn’t think Ray needs to worry about losing weight. She does agree he needs taekwondo, though. Taekwondo will mean somewhere to go, friends his age to spend time with outside of school, and something for Ray to feel good about besides his skill at video games.
Ray finds out that no matter how bad he thought things were, they can always get worse–and that when life punches you in the heart, it’s good to rely on friends who aren’t made out of sugar or pixels on a game screen.
Episode #4
Stretch!
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Meet Mr. Yee’s niece Zoe – she swings a mean bo staff, but doesn’t usually use it in the kind of battles she fights. Zoe’s spent a lot of time on her own because of her parents’ professions, and has gotten used to taking care of herself. Now that she’s one of the Marshmallows, though, she also has friends to take care of – to help, to teach, and to defend. Even Tim comes to trust her, both as friend and teacher.
But is there any good way to help and teach someone your age who’s not your friend; who may not be, may never be, anybody’s friend? When you’re used to making your own rules, how far will you (or can you) go for a good cause? Once you accept a responsibility, what do you do if it conflicts with other responsibilities? Coping with life can require you to make some big stretches.
But even when she stretches herself to find a solution, Zoe realizes, a lot of where you go depends on where you’ve been in the past, on who you are in the very heart of you, and on who you come from.
Sometimes where you get to is someplace you never thought you’d go.
