Librarian Chrissie recommends: Ellie McDoodle : New Kid in School by Ruth McNally Barshaw (JF Barshaw)

If you liked the sketch journal fashion of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, you’ll enjoy Ellie McDoodle : New Kid in School. Ellie has moved into a new house in a new town is now in the situation where she must make new friends. She decides to record her daily happenings of what she describes as “the end” in her sketch journal. The kids at school force Ellie to play “New Kid at School” Bingo which causes embarrassment and some tears. She can’t even eat lunch because the lunch lines are so long that by the time she gets her lunch, the bell rings for her next class. Ellie writes a letter to the principal explaining the situation and she encourages her classmates that if they don’t speak up about a problem in the school then they have no way to fix the problem. In the end, Ellie leads her classmates in a protest against the long lunch lines and her new classmates see her in a way other than the “new kid at school.” The author tells the story through sketches and comic illustrations- a great story for any child that has experienced moving to a new town.

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