How to Be Cool in the Third Grade

by Betsy Duffey, Janet Wilson (Illustrator)

Overview

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. 1) Get rid of the name Robbie. 2) Get jeans. 3)Avoid bullies like Bo Haney. If only it were that simple!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101076927
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	07/01/1999
Series:	Chapter, Puffin Series
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	80
Sales rank:	1,057,724
Lexile:	600L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Betsy Duffey is the author of numerous books for young readers, including Hey, New Kid!; The Gadget War; The Math Wiz; and Utterly Yours, Booker Jones (all Viking and Puffin). Her books have been Junior Library Guild selections, Crown Award nominees, and have been nominated for state awards in over twenty states including the California Young Reader Medal, the Texas Bluebonnet Award and the Florida Sunshine State Young Reader Award, while having been Parent's Choice and Children's Choice selections. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Janet Wilson is an established and award-winning Canadian author and illustrator of books for young readers. Her presentations are raising awareness of social, environmental, indigenous, economic, and intergenerational injustice, while inspiring and motivating readers to choose actions to make the world better.

Editorial Reviews

Here Duffey focuses on two typical kid concerns--the yearning to be somebody special and problems with a school bully. Robbie York desperately wants to be "cool" at school this year. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a chance: his mother takes his picture at the bus stop; he has a sissy-looking ruler; and, unlike most of the rest of the kids in third grade, he is not wearing blue jeans. When he loses his footing on the bus and accidentally lands in the lap of the class bully, his yearning to be cool is quickly transformed into a wish to get through the day without being harassed. Once at home, he alerts his mother to the fact that she is embarrassing him (no more kissing or picture-taking in front of other kids, please); it is much tougher, however, to get on the good side of his third-grade bete noire. The story ends abruptly with Robbie managing to win over "the enemy" with a mite too much aplomb. More realistic are Duffey's genuine, good-humored glimpses at the embarrassments of being young. Another Duffey chapter book follows.

Stephanie Zvirin

"Readers Robbie's age will be glad to find their own concerns on nearly every page,"—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher