  | Revenge of the green banana Author: Murphy, Jim | |
| Price: $6.50 | ||
Summary:
Jimmy Murphy starts sixth grade determined to be a better student and impress the beautiful Kathy Guenther, but Sister Angelica has him and his friends pegged as troublemakers and they may just prove her right.
| Accelerated Reader Information: Interest Level: MG Reading Level: 5.80 Points: 7.0 Quiz: 186916 | Reading Counts Information: Interest Level: 6-8 Reading Level: 5.70 Points: 10.0 Quiz: 68825 | |
Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews (-) (10/01/16)
School Library Journal (10/01/16)
Booklist (04/01/17)
Full Text Reviews:
School Library Journal - 10/01/2016 Gr 4–6—Jim Murphy has decided that sixth grade is going to be different—this year he will not sit in the back of the class, he will do his homework, and he just might manage to impress his crush, Kathy Guenther. This plan goes awry within the first minutes of the first day of school, when Jim's new teacher, Sister Angelica Rose, reveals that she has an entire folder detailing his past antics. After repeated humiliations at her hands, Jim and his friends start work on elaborate revenge plots. The author and main character share a name, which, along with a "warning" at the beginning of the book, sets up this goofy tale as an autobiography. It often reads like a story told by an older relative, and though this conversational style can be appealing, younger readers aren't given a lot of context for the world of a 1950s Catholic school and the secondary characters aren't always well realized. Nonetheless, the quick plotting, school high jinks, and charming protagonist will go a long way for many readers. VERDICT Recommended for fans of slapstick humor.—Gesse Stark-Smith, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR - Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.
Booklist - 04/01/2017 It’s 1958, and sixth-grader Jimmy Murphy, despite his troublemaker-rep from previous school years at St. Stephens, hopes to do better. But from the onset, he’s singled out and humiliated in class by strict new instructor Sister Angelica. Seeking revenge, he and his friends decide to devise a retaliatory prank. Meantime, while Jim’s struggling with schoolwork and trying to stay trouble-free, he wonders how to get crush Kathy to like him and is unwillingly cast as the Green Banana in the second-graders’ play. Gradually, though, things improve, and after making an unexpected discovery about Sister Angelica, Jim begins reconsidering his actions, including pursuing the prank, which causes some chaos but also brings about insight and opportunity. In this semiautobiographical account, Murphy descriptively, and sometimes acerbically, details a year of personal frustrations, setbacks, and successes, with wry and glib touches. While his characters can sometimes lack depth, readers might still relate to issues from feeling targeted in school to the challenges and rewards of looking beyond appearances to the value of making new beginnings. - Copyright 2017 Booklist.
