THE FOURTEENTH GOLDFISH

Ellie's goldfish has lived for seven years, since her day as a preschooler or so she thought.  Her mother tells her that the fish was really goldfish number 14.  Her life is about to change even more when a 13 year old "distant cousin" comes to live with them. There's something very familiar yet odd about him, but she can't quite put her finger on what it is.  This isn't really a story about goldfishes or even pets, but a great coming of age tale, using humor and a bit of science fiction to force us to deal with the cycle of life - birth, growth, death - in a gentle and thoughtful way.   

Jennifer Holm, author of the Babymouse series, creates a story filled with adventure, humor, suspense, and love.  Best for readers from 4th - 8th.

Note: This will be our One Book One Glendale... for Young Readers in November.  We're very excited to have Ms. Holm come to Glendale to talk about her book.  Please check in for a date and time as we get closer to the event. 

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

A review by Theresa of the Children's Room: 

It’s the start of a new school year and shy seventh grader Ellie O’Brien is under attack from her former best friend and now the school’s reigning mean girl and her new sidekick and popular eighth grader Jack Mallory is suffering from extreme overbearing fatheritis in Megan Shull’s The Swap. 

Inadvertently they both end up in the nurse’s office nursing their wounds one Friday afternoon. What happens in the short time they are together ends up being a life changing experience when the two jokingly talk about changing places. A strange rhyme uttered by the school nurse and the next thing they know, Jack has long red hair and Ellie has a shiner. Unable to find her, the two kids realize that they will just have to make it through a weekend of soccer tryouts, hockey practices and sleepovers the best they can until Monday when they hope the nurse will restore everything back to where it should be. 

What results are at times funny situations, Jack's brothers use slang that leaves Ellie clueless and Jack getting a designer haircut and do, and at times challenging when the two excellent athletes have to play unfamiliar sports. Ellie and Jack each tell their own story in alternating chapters leaving no detail untold in this hard to put down story for grades 6 to 8.