THE ELLIE MCDOODLE DIARIES: MOST VALUABLE PLAYER by Ruth McNally Barshaw

Ellie learns about teamwork in this volume of the series. Ellie has several group projects at school as well as a soccer team and a "Journey of the Mind" team. Some of the groups work together better than others - and Ellie is better at some of the tasks than she is at others. Part of what she has to figure out is what sort of team player she wants to be, especially when she doesn't have as much to contribute to the team.

This was a great story! It had the same feeling I loved in the original Ellie McDoodle story. Ellie is part of a creative family, and the story has a positive message about perseverance. I enjoy telling students about this series. Ellie is a positive girl who really works to make the best of things. It is a joy to spend time with her and her friends and family, especially in this story. The art style is fun and appealing. I hope you will check this out!

4 out of 5 stars

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