Stuey is worried about second grade and not being able to read as well as his friends. He doesn’t like D.E.A.R. time at all and tries to get out of it as often as possible. He is also worried about not playing soccer as well as his older brother. Stuey has a good sense of humor and tries several stunts that do not work like when he was in first grade and he misread the word snacks as snakes. Stuey took a garter snake to school! No one else brought a snake that day.
Stuey is full of ideas and inventions. Most do not work. For example he tried to put suction cups on his shoes and walk up the school wall. Did not work! Will his best stunt idea yet work on Halloween or will he be laughed at again?
With the help of an understanding teacher and some spunk Stuey learns to read plus he learns it is all right to not be like his older brother.
128 pages
ISBN: 978-0374372927
Reviewed by: Alicia Romans, Information Specialist, Georgia, USA
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Second-grader Stuey Lewis’s school year is condensed into four chapters, each centered on a singular event or issue. The first chapter, “Reading Wizard,” exposes Stuey’s anxiety about his inability to read. He was told that it would just “come to him,” but on the third day of second grade, he still isn’t able to read. His best friend Will is a voracious reader, which just heightens Stuey’s fear of exposure.
“The Great Halloween Caper” highlights Stuey’s creative genius when it comes to costuming and maximizing candy acquisition. In “Footsteps” Stuey must figuratively fit into his own soccer shoes without worrying about filling older brother Anthony’s. And finally, in “Secret Friends,” Stuey receives a lesson in re-evaluating who can be a friend.
Author Jane Shoenberg gives Stuey a more complex language and thought structure than most second graders whom I’ve met. However, what I do like in the first chapter on reading is a coy integration of the “five-finger rule” for choosing an appropriate reading book for kiddos going to the library. This first chapter’s emphasis on reading anxiety and expectations is nicely done without sounding too “teachery.” Unfortunately, the students who may suffer from this issue may not be able to read this book independently. Overall, this is a pleasant story for Just Grace fans but with a boy protagonist.
Recommended by Katherine Stehman, Librarian, Pennsylvania, USA
Reviewer's Note: One last comment – I may be getting old, but it certainly bothers me to hear teachers encourage their students to call them by their first names. Stuey even recognizes this as strange until he succumbs on the last page.
