21 Jun / Me and Rolly Maloo by Janet S. Wong, illustrated by Elizabeth Buttler
Janet Wong has gone literally hybrid. Her latest title, debuting next month, is part graphic novel, part regular prose. Thanks to her flexible illustrator Elizabeth Buttler, the result is an entertaining new way for young readers to enjoy a story on different levels.
Popular. pretty Rolly Maloo is smart, but not as smart as Jenna Lee when it comes to the tougher math problems. In the middle of their math test, Jenna gets hit in her right ear with a small paper ball … a request to cheat from Rolly and Rolly’s best friend Patty Parker.
“Maybe helping Rolly Maloo with a math answer would be called charity,” Jenna tries to reason with herself. “And instead of calling her a cheater, maybe you could call her someone who is smart enough to ask for help.” Even though Jenna knows better, she finds herself throwing back the paper ball … with the right answer! And when she gets caught by Mrs. Pie, her favorite teacher, Jenna insists “no one” threw her the paper ball.
Wong constructs an intricate puzzle of family and friends who eventually help Jenna find her own solutions. Meanwhile, Wong inventively manages to take on the educational system and the problems of ‘teaching to the test,’ and even takes a well-deserved jab at career-PTA moms who live over-vicariously through their less-than-perfect-children.
Wong understands well the social pressures of being the smart kid whose single mother works too hard for too little, who doesn’t have a whole lot of friends, who never gets to sit at the popular table during lunch. Fourth grade can be quite a battleground, but Wong makes sure that Jenna Lee eventually figures out how to navigate the challenges with the help of real, true friends. We should all be so lucky … in any grade, at any age!
Readers: Middle Grade
Published: 2010
This book sounds great! I love how it’s an Asian protagonist but deals problems every 4th grader would have. Can’t wait to read it!
You’ll love it for sure … right up your ‘girl power’-sort of alley! Please come back and let us know what you think …
I can’t wait. I would love to begin the year with this book as a read-aloud with my 4th students.
Come back and let us know what your fourth-graders thought!
Thanks for visiting BookDragon, too!
I’ve always loved Janet Wong’s books–she’s SO talented in SO many genres: poetry (such as the fabulous SUITCASE OF SEAWEED), picture books (such as the inventive BUZZ which I use in teaching picture books), middle grade novel-in-verse (the terrific MINN AND JAKE)
I can’t wait to read this!
We’re think-alike Janet-groupies for sure! Both our kids’ book collections are filled with Janet’s titles … and even as they have outgrown them, we keep them around. Every good library needs a Janet-section!
April: Students doing “author studies” have told me that they like it when their chosen authors work in several genres–gives more variety in their reading list. Well, you’ve probably heard this from students, too, since you also work in the picture book format and write verse novels. Congratulations, by the way, on NEW YEAR AT THE PIER; you’ll be collecting your Sydney Taylor award soon, right?
Grace: I think you have great instincts about children’s books, and I know you’re incredibly busy this week with pre-Newbery banquet preparations, so it means a lot that you took the time to post. In this book, as you guessed, race/ethnicity has nothing to do with the plot, but I’m hoping to introduce some discussion in a sequel (if sales of this book can justify a sequel) of the “Asians are good at math” stereotype as well as talk between Shorn L. and Jenna about being black and Asian and wondering how other kids “see” that. (Actually, Jenna is mixed-race, but everyone thinks of her as Asian because they’ve only seen her mother. In the sequel, we’ll also learn about her missing father.)
Linda: I’m hoping that many teachers will follow your lead and use at least some of this book as a read-aloud. There are several sections (1-3 pages each) that could create interesting discussions about ethics, and what makes teachers happy, and standardized tests, and friendship, and how/whether it changes your school life when you have money. I grew up working class/middle class (but family talks always made me feel that we were very poor). I remember envying the “richer kids” whose mothers were always at school (because they didn’t have to work). I hope that this book inspires PTA leaders to think of more meaningful and practical ways in which working parents can make a contribution to school life.
Note: this book could also make a fun readers’ theater piece, with the talk balloons (and thought balloons) of the “graphic novel” parts being performed by a half-dozen children as they come up in a chapter that a narrator is reading aloud.
Thank you, everyone, for your posts!
Ooooh! I want to read this one!!!!!