About the Author

BARBARA PARK is beloved by millions as the author of the wildly popular New York Times bestselling Junie B. Jones series, which has been translated into multiple languages and is a time-honored staple in elementary school classrooms around the world. She is also the author of award-winning middle-grade novels and bestselling picture books, including Skinnybones, Almost Starring Skinnybones, Mick Harte Was Here, and The Kid in the Red Jacket. Barbara died in 2013, but her legacy lives on in the laughter her books give to readers all over the world.

Reviews

Gr 4-6 Park commiserates with the problems of pre-adolescence in this first-person narrative of ten-year-old Howard Jeeter, whose life is temporarily destroyed by a cross-country move to a new family home. Howard knows what awaits him as he drives east from Arizona with his insensitive parents, bawling baby brother, and smelly basset hound to a historic house in Massachusetts: he will be a vulnerable and possibly despised ``new kid.'' His first contact on Chester Pewe St. is Molly, an intrusive first-grader with red hair ``styled kind of like Bozo's.'' Her desperate attempts to be friendly drive Howard to distraction and also make him anxious that his new classmates won't accept him if he hangs around a first grader. Howard's coming to terms with Molly's need for friendship is a particularly well-done part of the novel. As in Operation: Dump the Chump (1982) and Beanpole (1983, both Knopf), Park writes in a witty and bittersweet style about the awkward, super-sensitive age of early adolescence; her humor both reflects and sharpens the sensibilities of her readers in the areas of family and friend relationships. Another first-rate addition by this author to the middle-grade popular reading shelf. Linda Wicher, Lincolnwood Public Library, Ill.