Overview / 简介: |
| It's not easy to seem cool when the whole class knows you wear superhero underwear and your mom still kisses you goodbye at the bus stop. But Robbie York has a plan, in this delightful chapter book that's "well tuned-in to third-grade cool" |
From Organization / 国外机构评价: |
| Robbie's somewhat overstated aim is to create a new image for himself by taking steps like avoiding his mother's company on the way to the bus stop each morning, trading in his superhero underwear for plain white, and getting jeans. If his goals seem small and unassuming, so is Robbie; and his solutions--in one instance, simply asking his mother for what he wants instead of expecting her to mind-read--are ingenuously on target. But though Duffey is well tuned in to third-grade cool, she includes a stereotypical bully, held back a year and ready to tangle with anyone who looks at him the wrong way; worse, references to coolness and what kind of year Robbie is having are annoyingly repetitious. Nevertheless, modest aspirations mean modest rewards: readers Robbie's age will be glad to find their own concerns on nearly every page. Illustrations not seen. (Fiction. 8-10) |
Foreign Customer Review / 国外客户评价: |
| This was a nice little story about Robbie who wants to start off the new school year the right way. He begins to make a list of things he must do to make himself cool, such as getting jeans and changing his name. He is paired up to work with Bo, a bully who is repeating the third grade. Robbie, get scared, but when he faces his mother and simply tells her he would like some jeans and that he can walk to the bus stop by himself, she agrees.
He has a revelation that people did not know what he wanted them to do unless he asked them to do it. From then on, he had a new outlook. For his first meeting with Bo, they hit it off and Robbie became one of the cool kids. But, not because of his new jeans or that his mom stopped kissing him at the bus stop. Robbie became cool because of the way he thought about himself. A good lesson for all children at such an impressionable time in their lives.
This is a good introduction to chapter books. The 13 chapters are dealt out over 69 pages. All of the chapters are short enough to hold an elementary child's interest. The illustrations are beautiful and really add to the story. I would recommend this book as a way to lead children into chapter books and/or to begin a discussion on what being cool is, and the importance of self-worth.
The only thing I felt this story was lacking was some of the realism and consistency of the characters. At times Robbie, Doug and Bo can be young for their age and then on the next page seem to be overly mature for the third grade. Robbie's parents have also become caricatures.
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