Bibliographical information:

Choldenko, Gennifer.  If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2007.

Brief summary:

Kirsten McKenna and Walker Jones are classmates at the tony Mountain School. Kirsten is a returning student, but her year is off to an unpromising start: her parents are fighting, and her best friend Rory seems to be dropping her for the popular set. Walk is new to Mountain School, a scholarship student and "the only black kid in his grade." They narrate alternating chapters, describing their growing friendship and their dealings with the popular (but nasty) Brianna Hanna-Hines, whose "dad made a billion bucks writing . . . Women Are Toads, Men are Toadstools."

Comments:

There's a lot of humor in this account of middle-school life, but there's also real warmth in the growing friendship between Walk and Kirsten. Kirsten's little sister Kippy is a delightful character--a precocious second grader who reports that she spelled "all the McKenna diseases"  (including psoriasis, corns, and vaginitis) during her class spelling lesson.

Grade/Age level:

Grades 4-8

Cautions:

Some elements of the family history may be confusing to kids on the younger end of the age range, but Kippy offers helpful glosses from the perspective of a younger child.

If you like this book, you might also like . . .

Linda Urban, A Crooked Kind of Perfect 

--Lisa Gordis

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