Publisher Description

A fun new boy has just moved in next door to Grace's best friend, Mimi. When Grace has to go away on a family trip during school, she is terrified that when she comes back Mimi will be best friends with Max instead! After her trip, not only does it seem her fear has come true, but Mimi is even friends with the disgusting Sammy. Now Just Grace has to team up with two other Graces in her third-grade class for a school project, including the Big Meanie. Ages 5-8 Grades 1-3 AUTHOR Charise Mericle Harper is the author and illustrator of many books for children, including the Just Grace series. In a starred review, Booklist called Just Grace "hilarious" and said, "The kids come alive in the story, and Harper enhances the comical goings-on with sparkling cartoon sketches. Give this to . . . anyone looking for a funny book." JUST GRACE PAPERBACKS 9780547014401 Book 1 Just Grace 9780618934829 Book 2 Still Just Grace 9780547237534 Book 3 Just Grace Walks the Dog 9780547248219 Book 4 Just Grace Goes Green 9780547406299 Book 5 Just Grace and the Snack Attack 9780547722276 Book 6 Just Grace and the Terrible Tutu 9780547942193 Book 7 Just Grace and the Double Surprise 9780544022836 Book 8 Just Grace and the Flower Girl Power 9780544225336 Book 9 Just Grace, Star on Stage

Author Biography

Charise Mericle Harper is the author and illustrator of many books for children, including the Just Grace series and the Next Best Junior Chef series. Charise lives in Oregon. Visit Charise at chariseharper.com and on Twitter at @ChariseHarper.

Review

"Harper's strength is her understanding of third-grade angst...she explores with a comic touch...Suggest this reassuring look at friendship adn family to fans of Judy Moody and Clementine." Booklist 9/15/07 Booklist, ALA "Dealing with the problems of friendship and change in a lively way...a good addition to the middle-grade shelves." SLJ 10/2007 School Library Journal "A moving story of Grace's growing understanding of others makes for a fine pre-teen leisure read." MBR December 2007 Midwest Book Review --

Review Quote

* "The kids come alive in the story, and Harper enhances the comical goings-on with sparkling cartoon sketches. Give this to...anyone looking fro a funny book."

Excerpt from Book

My real name is Grace, and if that was your real name then you would think that if someone wanted your attention they would shout Grace!" but that is not what happens for me. I am not a usual person, but you can't tell that by just looking at me, because most of my unusualness is pretty much on the inside. My outside wrapping looks like any other girl's, except I don't wear very much pink because that is definitely not one of my favorite colors. Having four girls named Grace in the same class, and not letting any of them use the name Grace. Instead, calling them Grace W., Gracie, Grace F. (secretly named the Big Meanie by me, because that is what she is), and Just Grace. The Just Grace name probably being the most dumb name in the whole world ever, which is especially bad and sad because that's the one that is mine. Thinking that someone is 100 percent disgusting and not likable, and then having something happen that changes your mind a little bit so that the gross disgusting feeling is almost all gone, even when you have to stand right next to him and say, Hi, Sammy." Having a little superpower that almost no one knows about. Empathy power is the power to feel someone else's sadness, and then to try to make that sadness go away. It's not an easy power to have. I know, because I have it. It still tasted good, though! Girls who draw comics, because mostly that's a boy thing, though it just doesn't make any sense why it would be that way. Butterfly Lady can make you feel better just by wrapping you in her big beautiful wings. Living next door to your most perfect friend in the whole world. And having that friend be someone as great as Mimi. Having a cool French flight attendant named Augustine Dupre living right in your very own basement. But living in a great apartment that your dad made, not in the scary-spider part next to the furnace. Hopefully they will never meet!

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