ELLIE MCDOODLE: HAVE PEN, WILL TRAVEL by Ruth McNally Barshaw

When Ellie's parents are called away for a family emergency, Ellie and her little brother are sent to stay with family and go on a camping trip. Ellie finds her aunt and uncle to be grumpy, thinks her cousins are lame, and believes everything the family does is wrong. She records all her experiences, thoughts, and feelings in her sketch book. When her cousin finds the sketch book, things get pretty awkward and uncomfortable.

I discovered Ellie McDoodle last fall and fell in love with her. In this particular book, she was a little harder to love because she was SO unhappy (I guess that is a sign of good writing that her mood was so evident!). In this book, Ellie deals with some lessons in learning to get along. I thought it was a great example of how everything YOUR family does always seems "right" and everything others do feels "wrong." This could be an interesting discussion in a book club or a classroom setting. Ellie deals with her guilty feelings and the confrontations with her family in realistic ways and she learns a lot along the way. I think fans of Ellie's other books will like this one. I don't think readers have to read them in order to enjoy them, although I might suggest to students that they start with one of the more light-hearted books before diving into this one. The journaling-format, with art, might appeal to fans of Dork Diaries or Big Nate or Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

3 out of 5 stars

PICTURE DAY and BORIS ON THE MOVE

   

(I received copies of these from Scholastic at ALA this summer)

Both of these are what I call early chapter books or transitional chapter books. I love finding books like this that I can recommend to my Kindergarten through second grade students who want to make the transition to chapter books.

Picture Day is about a girl with her own style who has to go to school for picture day in a non-ruffled, non-special outfit. I can think of specific students who will share Missy's dismay at wearing something "plain" for school pictures. (AR reading level of 2.5)

Boris on the Move is about a boy who longs for adventure. But camping at the local conservation park was NOT what he had in mind. In the end, Boris might find more adventure than he bargained for. (AR reading level of 2.0)

Three out of 5 stars. These books kick off new series from Scholastic. Pictures of other volumes are listed below.