The Girl With 500 Middle Names
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
JANIE WHO?
It's hard enough being the new kid in school. It's even tougher when all of your new classmates live in big houses and wear expensive clothes, while your parents have little and are risking everything just to give you a chance at a better life.
Now Janie's about to do something that will make her stand out even more among the rich kids at Satterthwaite School. Something that will have everyone wondering just who Janie Sams really is. And something that will mean totally unexpected changes for Janie and her family.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Haddix's (Just Ella; Running Out of Time) first novel for the Ready-for-Chapters series features a likable narrator adjusting to a new neighborhood and value system. Janie's secretary mother knits sweaters (personalized with children's names) in her spare time to sell at a fancy store and uses the extra income to fund a move from the city to the suburbs. There, third-grader Janie can attend a better public school, but all the children dress better than she does. Soon after Janie and her parents relocate, the store's owner returns all the sweaters, announcing that he has found a cheaper source. With no money for the new wardrobe her mother had promised her, Janie begins wearing the handknit sweaters to school, explaining that the embroidered monikers are her middle names. In a tidy conclusion, the girl's modeling of the sweaters inspires her mother to sell them on her own and Janie finally abandons her resistance to the kind, lonely classmate who has tried to become her friend. Despite a few overwritten passages (e.g., "I remembered how she'd knitted and knitted and knitted, early in the morning and late at night, on the bus and at home, every second she could for a solid year. Just for me. Because she loved me"), readers will likely warm up to this appealing novel's perceptive, independent-minded title character. Ages 7-10. (Mar.)
Customer Reviews
I love this book
I like all of Margret Peterson haddix books this book is really good I recommend it for 3 grade through 5 grade