Apparently Alvin Ho and Sophie Hartley are well-known entities, but until I was introduced to both of these Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Nominees, I had not heard of either of them. Alvin Ho: Allergic to Birthday Parties, Science Projects, and Other Man-made Catastrophes introduces us to Alvin, his whole family, and his best friend Flea, a girl who wears a pirate patch and has one leg shorter than the other. I thought that the Asian-American character is unique (heavy on the “American” — other than the reference to his grandfather GungGung who lives with them and likes to teach everyone Chinese calligraphy).
Alvin is never without his PDK, personal disaster kit, which immediately made me love him. I felt like he was Scaredy Squirrel come to life. In addition to the fun, reality, and neurosis that Alvin brings us, we also get a bit of history, as the Concord students visit on a field trip with characters dressed as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, and Louisa May Alcott.
The book itself engages the reader by using different fonts and capital letters for emphasis, along with line drawings on the majority of pages.
I found this book to be refreshingly free of that tween-wannabe attitude, and since it features a 2nd grader, the book is a perfect fit for 7 -10 year olds.
Happy Birthday, Sophie Hartley — Sophie has a big imagination. She wants a gorilla for her tenth birthday — yes, a real gorilla — and though it’s out of the question, it doesn’t surprise anyone that she would ask, and that she would think that it was possible. She’s begged her parents for a pet for years, but the answer is always no.
I like Sophie’s struggles through elementary school — friends finding other friends with similar interests, her 13-year-old sister growing up, and moving out of their shared room, etc. Elementary school girls curious about a little bit more mature topics will get a little bit of that through middle school sister Nora, but Sophie filters her squealing over boys with the “what’s all the fuss attitude” that her kind of 10-year-old girl has (my kind of 10-year-old girl had that attitude too).
This is sort of an early coming-of-age type story as Sophie endures some girl-drama, but in the end has some amazing friends pulling for her.
Jennifer Donovan reads and blogs, blogs and reviews a multitude of genres, which couldn’t make her happier.
My husband and I were disturbed when we took Timothy to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid (our son had read the book before, but not us). To think how the main character viewed everyone and how he treated his best friend. We had to have several conversations to try to undo that!! In light of that, I’m always looking for books that have the creativity of the “Diary” series without the cruelty. Alvin Ho sounds like just the thing!
Yes, lots of those book have “attitude.” I think that Alvin had a typical fart joke or something, but other than that, there was a realistic portrayal of siblings and friends — not ALL hunky dory all the time. In fact, this book deals with him having to decide between two different b-day parties, but it’s a good lesson and very realistic about wanting to be popular vs. being loyal.
I haven’t read or even seen either of these, but I’ll keep a lookout for them!
I was expecting the Cybils KidLit Challenge to be up today. I must have my dates wrong, huh?
Thanks for the great review and giveaway.