FIFTH GRADE TOP DOGS — Review & Giveaway

Thought for the Day:

“Don’t wait for the muse. She has a lousy work ethic. Writers just write.”
~ Barbara Kingsolver ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

HERE is an interesting post by Jon Morrow from SmartBlogger about adding Power Words to your writing.

Nathan Bransford’s blog is always worth a look. HERE is a great post called Don’t Release the Tension that has important tips for all writers who need tension to keep their readers reading, and who doesn’t want that.

Randy Ingermanson on Advanced Fiction Writing has an interesting post on how to deepen the secondary characters in your stories. It’s called ‘Every Character Has a Story, and you can find it HERE.

I talked about how strange the French Open had been in the first few days, and it only got stranger as the week went on. All the top players were knocked out early. The women’s champion is 19-year-old Mirra Andreeva. She was pretty unknown until this week. The men’s champion is Alexander Zverev, who has been around for a while, but he has never won a major before. Still, it was pretty exciting to watch. My losing Giants seem to have turned a corner and have found their hitting chops. In one remarkable game, they beat the Chicago Cubs 18-3. I wouldn’t bet my lunch money that they will win the World Series, but it sure is a lot more fun to watch when they are getting some wins. Tonight my daughter’s family will come over to watch the Monaco Grand Prix, so we are back to F1 racing for a while. In other news, I have been watching some episodes of a show a friend recommended called The Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. I’m trying to sort out my life and get rid of a lot of the stuff I’ve collected over the years. My local public library will really be happy I’m doing this, and so will my kids when they don’t have to deal with all my junk.

Last week, I offered a gently-read ARC of GLORY BE by Jamie Sumner to one of you. This week’s winner is Brenda from the Log Cabin Library blog. Congratulations, Brenda! I’ll get your book out to you soon. Brenda posts lots of middle-grade and YA reviews on her blog. You should check it out.

I should have gotten my review of FIFTH GRADE TOP DOGS by Jerry Spinelli up sooner, but I read so many books, sometimes they get lost in the pile. Anyway, it’s never too late to post a review. I wrote this one for the Los Angeles Book Review. Here is my review.

Suds Morton is about to enter fifth grade. He and his best friend, Joey, can’t wait. At last, they will be the top dogs at the school. Little kids will bow down to them and do their bidding. All Suds and Joey need to do is be cool. It seems to come easily to Joey, but Suds needs to practice. He spends a lot of time at the mirror practicing his cool looks and his cool walk. His little sister doesn’t seem impressed. Once school starts, Suds and Joey find they have a new teacher, Mr. Miles, who seems to be on to their shenanigans. The boys get in trouble at school, and Suds’s parents call for changes. Maybe being top dog isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Jerry Spinelli has owned the elementary reading space for a very long time. This book is part of a series that sees these characters in earlier grades, but this one seems like an afterthought. There isn’t much depth to the characters, and it doesn’t have a very compelling plot. His writing is great, as usual, and there is a lot of humor, but the story is a bit ho-hum.

I have a gently-read ARC to give to one of you. All you need to do is be a follower (it’s free and easy — see the top, right corner of the post) with a US Address, and leave a comment. If you share the link to this post on social media, please let me know in your comment, and you will get an extra chance. And please don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.