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Jenna is one of the least popular girls in grade four, so why is the most popular girl inviting her over?
Rolly and her friend Patty want to win the math competition, and they believe they can get top scores with Jenna’s help. Help does not come in the form of tutoring, though. They want her to cheat - and cheat on the day of the test.
Jenna wants desperately to be their friend, so she starts to pass her answers to them. Although she hesitates before she acts, her odd behavior during the test makes her friends Hugo and Shorn question her conduct and her teacher, Mrs. Pie, question her test scores.
Blame is misplaced as the guilty parties lie, but they are caught when an honest (and brave) student comes forward. The innocent students do have their names cleared (barely), but the best outcomes of this incident are the new friendships formed among the students and the students’ parents.
Black-and-white pencil and Adobe Photoshop illustrations make several pages of this story look like a graphic novel. The eleven characters (students, parents and teachers) are listed under the Cast of Characters section at the beginning of the book, a helpful reference to have while reading the book. Certain scenes are written in panels with speech bubbles, others as typed words on a computer screen.
The story does touch on a topic children will be faced with, but some of the adults in the book act in appalling or childish ways that I didn’t find believable. They behaved more like bratty children than adults as they judged Jenna and said mean things about the other students and adults.
I did enjoy Mrs. Pie and her detecting skills, and the way homemade pies changed the lives of several of the characters, but I found Patty and Rolly’s apology to each other unnatural and Jenna’s apology didactic.
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Tanya Boudreau/2011 for curled up with a good kid's book |
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For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews,
visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)
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Me and Rolly Maloo