Eight-year-old EllRay Jakes is the smallest kid in Ms. Sanchez's third grade class, even counting the girls. Unfortunately for EllRay, Jared Matthews is the biggest in class and views EllRay as his target to take it out on due to a misunderstanding. When EllRay's father promises to take him to Di...
I just finished reading EllRay Jakes Is Not a Chicken by Sally Warner. I liked this book because it is interesting and not on just one topic the entire story.I think this book is interesting because I have been bullied before, but not as intense as poor EllRay. I think this book teaches lessons b...
Emma McGraw may be a bit shy, but when someone's being teased, she's the first one to defend them. So when Jared Mathews keeps picking on Ellray Jakes, Emma can't hold back. "Quit it, you big bully," she yells. But the results aren't exactly what she hoped for. Ellray is embarrassed to be rescued...
A novel in words and sketches. ?It?s only temporary,? twelve-year-old Skye McPhee writes in her sketchbook after being shipped off to her gran?s in Sierre Madre, California. After all, her parents have their hands full taking care of her older brother, who?s been severely injured in a car acciden...
Emma whispers later that day. “Are you done with the red marker?” “Yeah,” I say gloomily, snapping the lid on and handing it over. I was drawing a huge ladybug with stingers and fangs, but whatever. “Isn’t this so much fun?” she asks. Valentine’s Day is a huge deal at Oak Glen Primary School—for ...
my mom tells me right after dinner. “Look at what you just ate, for heaven’s sake.” Meatballs, mashed potatoes, and peas. And applesauce for dessert. Sure, I ate everything. But maybe I was only being polite. “In my humble opinion,” Mom says, “you were well enough today to stay in school.” She gi...
I ask Dad the next night, Sunday. It is still raining, but it is warm and cozy inside—except for the cold, nervous feeling in my stomach. Mom is upstairs giving Alfie her endless bath, and Dad and I are hanging out in the family room. There’s a nature show on TV, but the s...
My spelling, punctuation, and even my words were a little worse than what you are about to read, but here goes. My personal narrative is called “Alfie’s Problem.” 1. WHAT HAPPENED? My mom said my sister Alfie was sad. Five minutes later, Alfie told me her best friend at day care was mean to her....
I say, almost gasping. It is a Monday in November, and Annie Pat Masterson and I are eating lunch at school. We are outside, my favorite place in the world to be. Annie Pat and I are getting ready for Thanksgiving—ten days away, Mom says—by stretching our stomachs. You have to do this from the in...
YOU OWE ME! “You two sit there,” the playground monitor says to Cynthia and me, sounding both angry and worried as she points to two chairs outside the principal’s office. The principal’s door is open, but he’s probably in the hallway, jumping out and saying “Hi!” to unsuspecting kids coming in f...
Cynthia asks on Friday night. She is standing at the front door. Her shiny hair is pulled back tight by a red plastic headband, the kind with little teeth in it. And she is holding onto a suitcase with a picture of a ballerina on the side. The suitcase is round, and it is shiny, too. Everything C...
Mom asks on Thursday night. “The weather forecast said the rain will stop by tomorrow, so Winter Games Day will go off without a hitch.” I am curled up on our saggy green sofa with my head on a flowery pillow on Mom’s lap, and we have both been reading library books. I’m collecting Required Readi...
14 MAN-TO-MAN Grown-ups call Wednesday “Hump Day” because it’s in the middle of the Monday to Friday work week. You have to get over it—the invisible “hump”—to be able to coast down the other side of the hill toward Friday and, best of all, the weekend. I think it’s the same for kids, because Wed...
18 A NOT-SO-PERFECT CHRISTMAS “Hey, buddy,” Dad says, poking his head into my room at ten-thirty p.m. on Christmas Eve. “Too excited to sleep? I can hear the wheels turning in here.” This means he can supposedly hear me thinking. Of course he can’t, but it’s true that my brain is buzzing. Today h...
I ask Alfie, my four-year-old sister. She is very cute, but please don’t tell her that. She’s bad enough. It is now Sunday afternoon, two days after my awkward talk with Kevin, and I am standing in the hall outside Alfie’s pink and purple bedroom. My new skateboard is tuck...