3rd Grade Worries and Wisdom
Be prepared to laugh out loud when reading Justin Case: School, Drool, and Other Daily Disasters (Feiwel and Friends, 2010) by Rachel Vail. The story is told in diary style and has fun illustrations by Matthew Cordell.
3rd grader Justin Krzeszewski gets nicknamed Justin Case because he’s a worry wart. He’s afraid of “The Way-Back in the Basement,” robbers breaking in, dogs–especially the dog he begged for–his new teacher, classmate Xavier Schwartz, and more. Here’s a sample of Justin’s perspective on third grade: “I figured out why it is called cursive: because of the bad words you think when you can’t draw the dumb letters right.”
Rachel Vail is a prolific author, and, as I found out at the LA SCBWI conference, a good speaker. She shared that she wrote this book for one of her sons. A month later I still find myself grinning over part of her talk. Go to the SCBWI blog for some snippets: Standing Room Only and Keynote.
Lean more about Rachel and her books here. Check out the Fun Stuff link. See more o Matthew Cordell’s art here. Read his blog and find out about work he’s doing for a book by Gail Carson Levine!
