Herbie Jones and the Class Gift
Grade 2-5 Herbie's third-grade classmate Annabelle suggests that her classmates chip in a dollar each toward one large gift for their teacher. This presents a problem for Herbie's friend Ray, whose father has lost his job, and for Herbie, whose parents are suddenly money- conscious. But the real problem devel ops as Ray and Herbie are charged with picking up the ceramic owl Annabelle has purchased and delivering it to class for the party, a simple chore that pre sents a series of unexpected perils. As in her two earlier books about Herbie, Kline's characters are ordinary third graders facing real dilemmas in their own world. (Annabelle is too bossy, and Ray's stomach is much stronger than his will power, successfully tempting him to spend hard-earned money on food in stead of on the class gift.) Their parents' problems are timtimely, offering a re freshing change from the familiar two- car, four-bedroom family of much con temporary fiction. For too long, Cleary's Henry Higgins and Ramona Quimby stood alone in fiction for early readers as real people whose lives in cluded ups and downs made memorable by the author's voice and insight. It is good to find their company increasing, joined in recent years by Johanna Hur witz' Aldo and Russell (Morrow); Ann Cameron's Julian (Knopf); and Chris tine McDonnell's Leo, Ivy, and Emily (Viking). Welcome to the crowd, Herbie Jones. Dudley B. Carlson, Princeton Public Library, N.J.Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.