BookDragon Blog

Bobby Ellis-Chan – skateboarder, goldfish trainer, football-challenged son of legendary NFL star “The Freezer” who is now a stay-at-home dad – is back. He’s a year older and a grade higher from when he made his entertaining debut in Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally), brought to you once again by writer Lisa Yee (of the fabulous Millicent/Stanford/Emily trilogy) and illustrator Dan Santat.

Thankfully he and Holly survived third grade and are back to being best friends. Jillian Zarr is as mean as ever, and her “wolf pack” doesn’t stray far from their alpha leader. Lucky for Bobby he’s still got St. James, Jackson, Chess, and his other buddies to hang out with. Mrs. Carlson, Room 15’s home room teacher, is pretty great, too, especially when she smiles.

Bobby still misses his trickster fish Rover – but now he’s got Beatrice and Koloff to swimmingly keep him company. Even though he’s allergic to dogs, he has the starring canine role in the upcoming production of Annie. Hopefully, his never-having-sewn-before-Dad will be able to get that fuzzy costume done in time.

When the new P.E. teacher, whose name is not Mr. Weiner House which Bobby has to learn the hard way, turns out to be Mr. Ellis-Chan’s greatest fan and thinks Bobby is heir-apparent to all that football glory, Bobby knows he’s in big trouble. Besides, his big sister Annie is the next-generation Ellis-Chan who’s fast becoming the high school star quarterback.

How is it possible fourth grade can be so … challenging?

Yee and Santat are clearly having too much fun making Bobby put one foot in front of the other … lucky for us readers (young and old, ahem) who get to chuckle right along, too.

Readers: Middle Grade

Published: 2010