One For the Tomboys

It's been a while since I ran out of books that I had brought home from work for myself to read. I didn't get a chance to stop by my school, so I waited until this little goody showed up from amazon (after I ordered it, of course).

I absolutely adored this book. Marty Mcguire (the title character) loves spending recess looking for frogs, and spends her weekends searching for crayfish and pretending to be Jane Goodall in the forest. Then, she is cast as the princess in her class's third grade production of The Princess and the Frog. At first, she's convinced there's a mistake, but then she learns how to make the play be all her own.

It's an adorable little book, and it's part of a series, so there's more adventures to read about. The book gives girls a role model for somebody who enjoys getting a little dirty, and gives a different perspective on what makes something "girly." In some ways, this book makes it seem like it's fun to be a tomboy. Given the fact that middle-grade girls have some pretty outstanding female role models (Katniss Everdeen, from The Hunger Games, for example), it's exciting to see that there's another such role model for younger girls. (This last sentence, of course, leaves out Bella Whatsherface from Twilight, since her character wouldn't be a good role model for even the most faint-hearted Victorian-era girl.)

One of my favorite parts of the book is that a lot of the harder vocabulary words are defined right there in the book. For example, it talks a lot about "improvising," which isn't a word younger students would necessarily know. However, the author, Kate Messner, defines the word right in the dialogue of the book, making it seems effortless to teach students a new word. The word keeps popping up throughout the book in different contexts, reinforcing its meaning. Part of this genius with vocabulary is probably due to the fact that Kate Messner is an elementary school teacher, so she knows what words will trip students up and how to define them in simple, understandable ways.

Although it doesn't have a level on Fountas and Pinnell, it seems to me to be an N or O -something along the same lines as Amber Brown, only slightly more difficult. Regardless, it's a great book for the early-chapter books students who need a relatable, interesting character to learn from.