Just Really, Really Good

I really love EllRay Jakes.  I love the books and I love the kid.  I just finished what is published so far in the series:  Rocks the Holidays, Stands Tall and Recess King.  Each one of these is a worthy addition to a very worthy series.  You have to love this kid, you just do.

Amber Brown is Not a Crayon is the first in the Amber Brown series.  You Can't Eat Your Chicken Pox, Amber Brown is the second.  The third is Amber Brown Goes Fourth.  The fourth book in the series is Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit.  Forever Amber Brown is the fifth.  Sixth is Amber Brown Sees Red.

Wheew.  That took a long time.

Obviously I did like this series.  I listened to all of them through the library. And that is only way I could have read them, probably because the covers are terrible.

Not Gary Paulsen book cover terrible.  But pretty terrible.

Amber Brown books aren't as good as Gary Paulsen books, no, but they are more than I thought they would be.  Amber's parents are divorced and I don't know...these were really the first books that I read that gave me a real sense (as much as it could be real) about how a kid feels when his or her parents get divorced.  Well, a fictional third and fourth grader, anyway.

There is a lot of pain in these books.

Meh

I don't know...I tried to finish Stuart's Cape a few times.  I finally did.  Being so short I didn't see any reason to break up with it.  It just didn't really pull me in or wow me.  Stuart is a nice kid.  Just moved to a new town.  Nervous about starting at a new school, that kind of thing.  He believes that he can't have any fun or adventure without a cape and so he makes one, out of his dad's neckties, which is pretty clever and I bet it would very attractive!  This was okay, but I probably won't read any more in the series.

More of Katie

No Messin' with My Lesson is the eleventh book in the series and I am STILL not bored.  And I don't see them as losing their magic yet!  At least for me!

Hooked on Katie Kazoo!

Katie Kazoo has been a very popular series for awhile now!  I had never gotten around to reading one of them, but I needed a quick book to listen to and I want to find more books that I can personally recommend and so the library had Anyone But Me and Out to Lunch on the same download.  I was hooked!  No wonder so many kids like her!  She is nice and kind, yes, the books are a little heavy-handed with messages, but these books were so good that as soon as I finished them I download Oh, Baby! and Girls Don't Have Cooties.  They were awesome!  So then I downloaded I Hate Rules, Get Lost!  I loved them and now I am listening to Drat!  You Copycat and Doggone It!  and...you guessed it, they are awesome!
Just finished DYC and DI.  Funny series, and Katie is a good friend!
Getting a little obsessed, but they are such quick and fun reads and still fresh.  Finished Any Way You Slice It and Quiet on the Set.  Still awesome.  Not tired of them yet!

I know how they felt! SPOILERS!

When I read Nikki and Deja:  Birthday Blues I had to laugh at the ending.  I knew just how Deja felt when the rain came down!
First of all, I love this book and I love this series.
This is the second one in the series and I have started the third.
The deal is this, Deja's birthday is coming up.  She loves her birthday and she has been running around, like she does every year, talking about her party and planning a great time.
She has a nemesis. however.  In Antonia.  Antonia knows that Deja's party is going to be Saturday afternoon.  So what does Antonia do? She has a "just because" party at the same time on the same day and she hands out her invitations before Deja does!  So now, all of the girls, in all of the third grade classes are going to Antonia's party which will have an outdoor roller skating rink and a lot of outdoor games and fun.
Deja was just planning and indoor game party.
But then...it rains!  And even though it is raining on Deja's party, that means it is also raining on Antonia's party, too!  And so Deja and Nikki are super happy and dancing singing the It's Raining, It's Pouring song!
All of the girls show up, except for Antonia.  And because Deja isn't a Junie B. or an Ivy or a Bean, she plans to call Antonia and invite her anyway.
This is a great, great series.  And I love it!  There is more in here, though.  Like Deja wondering if her dad will come.  She hasn't seen him in many years.  And Deja getting some advice from some older folks in her neighborhood and well, this is just an all-round great book.
I felt like Deja once because since 2009 at my work we have been having a car cruise in the summer.  All of a sudden another local entity, less than 6 miles away, in the same industry, had a car cruise on that very same night.  Theirs was a fund-raiser, ours was not.  But still.
I was so sad and mad and hurt and just angry.
And then...it rained.
And oh...how we danced.
Now it had never rained before on our car cruise day.  And it hasn't rained since.  Because I am not as kind as Deja, for years after I would promote our car cruise as "often imitated, never duplicated."  Yes, I even did that this year.
The thing is, the other entity never did have another car cruise.  So why do I still do that?  I need to let it go! Like Deja!
Great book.  And next year...I will leave off the imitated/duplicated.  
Maybe.

More Friends for Keena and Ty!

I had to find some girls who were nice enough to be friends with the likes of Keena Ford, Roscoe, Billy Miller and Ty Perry.  Nikki and Deja are perfect for them!  If the first book is any indication of their personalities.   They are real girls.  They have their tiffs.  They get cranky.  But they are not mean and just plain toads.  What an enjoyable book!  I am looking forward to the others and more by Karen English. They are in third grade and they would also be great friends with Dyamonde Daniel, too!

Another New Friend!

Here he is!  EllRay Jakes!  Wow!  Yes!  Another friend for Ty, Roscoe and Alvin and Billy Miller!  I was at a book fair I saw EllRay Jakes is NOT a Chicken was there.  Yes, I was sucked in by the super-cute cover.  I didn't even know it was a series!  After reading the first, I read the rest right away.  I even ended up personally buying two of them.  I listened to EllRay Jakes is a Rock Star, which was read in a great, great and funny way!  Listen to a sample.  I thought it was dead-on!  The latest one, EllRay Jakes is Magic, I had to buy the ebook because I couldn't wait for the hardcopy!  Awesome! Awesome!  Awesome!

Shine Like a Dyamonde

The Dyamonde Daniel books are pretty awesome.  I really love Nikki Grimes, so I am not surprised that I love this seres.  Now I must say, I am super sad that it doesn't seem that there are any more coming.  I really hope that there will be more!  Dyamonde would be a great friend to Alvin, Roscoe, Keena, Ty and Billy that's for sure!  Dyamonde is a love, caring, third-grader and I was sucked in right from the first book.  Great, great series.