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Read Moving Day (2008)

Moving Day (2008)

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Author
Genre
Rating
3.73 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
0545039479 (ISBN13: 9780545039475)
Language
English
Publisher
scholastic press

Moving Day (2008) - Plot & Excerpts

I reviewed this book for my blog! Please visit me at http://amonsteratemybookreport.blogsp... Allie is a girl with a lot of rules. Lots of her rules are about friendship—like her Don’t Shove a Spatula Down Your Best Friend’s Throat rule. Some aren’t friendship rules—like the Never Eat Anything Red rule. (That’s one of my favorites.) Allie’s story starts out when she shoves a spatula down her best friend’s throat. And if you think that’s bad, then wait, it gets much worse. When Allie gets home from her best friend’s house, a.k.a Mary Kay, she finds out she is moving and she’ll have to give up her rock collection. Later that night, Allie and her family go to visit their new house. Allie kept whining because she didn’t want to move into the new house. But Allie stopped whining when her mom said that if she moved into the house without whining she could get a new kitten. Allie agreed with that . . . until she saw the house. She thought it was haunted. When they arrived her mom also said that Allie would have to attend a new school. Will Allie be able to change her parent’s minds? Or will she have to make a Never Move Into a Haunted House Rule? Find out in Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Moving Day. Why I liked it: Allie likes rules. That means she will follow them. Allie has a lot in common with me because she also follows rules and is witty—just like me. Plus, she has blonde hair, too. Allie is cool to me because she collects geodes. They look like rocks on the outside, but on the inside, Geodes look like sparkly diamonds. I recommend the Allie Finkle books to people who are crazy about rules.

I am impressed with Meg Cabot's voice in this series. She typically writes for teens, so I wasn't sure if her writing would translate well to the tween set, but I found Allie to be a pitch perfect tween. Her worries about friends, her new house, and school are all things that are important to tweens and Meg Cabot doesn't trivialize any of Allie's fears. They're all a big deal to her and that's ok and understandable. I found that there was a lot happening in this novel-from Allie's worries about moving, her fight with her old best friend and trying to find a new one, and her desire to save the turtle at the Chinese restaurant, but it all worked and Meg Cabot tied everything together. I loved Allie's relationship with her uncle. She had an adult to go to and talk to about things that wasn't a parent and he didn't talk down to Allie or tell her her fears were silly. He helped her through them. I think many young girls who are worried about starting at a new school would love reading Allie's story and knowing they're not alone. I also enjoyed the premise of Allie's rules for girls. Each chapter had a rule that Allie learned, whch in some ways made each chapter have it's own mini-lesson or story. But it never felt moralistic or preachy. Many of Allie's rules were silly too-like "don't stick a spatula down your best friend's throat" while others have a more serious tone. Overall I found this book to be a great start to a series for tweens. There's humor and heart and a little bit of a lesson tucked into a fun package that I think would be a great book talk to this age group.

What do You think about Moving Day (2008)?

Utterly disappointing. Allie Finkle is unlikable as a main character. At least she has a redeeming quality in that, through her rules, she TRIES to be better. She also makes the very hard (and correct) decision to tell on an acquaintance who was being cruel to an animal. Otherwise, I was surprised at how flat this character was, there is no development. Her "friends" are just as bad. I know a good part of my reaction is reader bias - I have a 10 year old, a 9 year old, and a 15 year old, (all girls) and we've moved a LOT. I also grew up moving. I kept trying to relate either to Allie myself (one of my childhood moves being at 8) or relate Allie to one of my daughters, and I just couldn't. My kids aren't perfect, but if they behaved like this on a regular basis - there would be some parental intervention. The move itself is anti-climatic as well- Allie is making this big of a deal about moving across town? A half an hour tops and her world is collapsing, it just doesn't ring true. Allie's parents are upset when Allie goes to her new neighbors house without telling them, but are perfectly fine with her roaming her old neighborhood and sneaking out of the house (twice) at night. They are okay with her Kindergarten and 2nd grade brothers roaming free- the second grade brother gets to run to the new school by himself, but the parents need to walk Allie and the Kindy brother? The family is banned from Waffle House for the boys behavior, but not banned from the fanciest place in town for stealing a turtle? The lack of consistency is annoying.
—Sonya Edwards

Allie Finkle is a 4th-grader who loves animals, tolerates her little brothers, and is starting to think her best friend cries too much. Allie's not that adept at dealing with some of her other classmates, but she's started writing down rules for interacting with other people and she thinks she can work it out. But when she learns her family is planning to move across town to a rambling old fixer-upper house and she'll have to go to a new school, she fights like mad to keep it from happening. Allie is an engaging character, who tries hard. Some of the supporting characters, like her little brother who loves velvet wallpaper and dressing like a pirate, or her uncle Jay who is a perpetual grad student and the best babysitter ever, are really endearing. The "rules" gimmick doesn't work that well, in my opinion, but that's okay. The story ranges from kind of serious to very funny at times. There were some real life issues brought out about moving and making friends that my kids and I discussed. There were also scenes in a Chinese restaurant that had us giggling and gasping for breath. Overall, this is one series I'm happy to read with my kids.
—Francesca

Cute story about a girl Allie whose family is moving to a new house in a new neighborhood. The house is an old Victorian and she's afraid it's haunted so she just doesn't want to move. She loves her old house, her old best friend (sort of) and her old school. She's even been promised a new kitten if she has a good attitude about the move, but she tries lots of crafty tactics anyway to keep her family from moving.This book would have been a lot better if Allie had been a bit older. In the story she's only 9 but the writing style (in her perspective) is of an older girl. It was a bit distracting reading phrases that a 9-year-old wouldn't say. It would have worked perfectly if she had been 11 or 12.
—Annette

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