Bobby and Holly have been friends since forever. They know boys and girls aren’t usually best friends and they know their friends at school wouldn’t understand, so they have a strategy they call “The Parting Place”.  They walk to school together everyday, but when they get to “The Parting Place” about a block from their school, Bobby speeds up and Holly slows down…just so they won’t be seen together. It works.

But then the week before fourth grade starts, Bobby starts to notice some weird things about Holly. She starts caring about her hair and misses a traditional rock hunting afternoon with Bobby because she’s going shopping with Jillian. On the first day of school their friendship hits a definite bump in the road:

“Hey Bobby, wait up!” Holly was running to catch up to him.

Bobby stared at her in disbelief. “Why are you wearing that? It’s not Halloween.”

Holly smoothed the sleeve of her light blue dress. The big white bow around the waist reminded him of toilet paper. “It’s new,” She said proudly, “Do you like it?”

Bobby shook his head. “Nope.”

Oh, man. NOT smooth. And it’s downhill from there!  When Bobby and Holly are both nominated to run against each other in their class election for Student Council Representative an all out boys vs girls war begins. What’s the best strategy when your arch rival knows your weaknesses and all your secrets? Game on! Author: Lisa Yee

• Read Chapter 11 Bobby vs. Girls
• Official Website Bobby vs. Girls (Don’t miss the Fish Tricks videos!)
• Read an Interview with the author Lisa Yee

Bobby isn’t the only boy mystified by girls. Alvin Ho is allergic to them! Holly isn’t the only girl mystified by boys. Sheila Tubman never has understood Peter Hatcher. Here are some more funny books that showcase the battle between boys and girls:

Piper and The Gypsy Club (Piper and her friends Hailey, Michael and Nicole) have a problem. Since Piper moved and left her treehouse behind, there is nowhere good for them to hold their Gypsy Club meetings. They find an ad in a magazine for the perfect clubhouse - it has window boxes, wooden shingles…and it only costs $1,999.00. Now that’s cash The Gypsy Club doesn’t have, but they figure if they each ask their parents, at least ONE set of parents ought to say yes.

They figured wrong. Three sets of parents (Michael & Nicole are twins)=three answers:

1. “We aren’t rich like the Trumps in New York.”
2. “No, no, and no with a cherry on top.”
3. “No way. Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

On to plan B. The kids decide that the only way they can get their clubhouse is to earn the money themselves - that’s $500 each. Piper is so intent on earning her money she says “yes” to every job she can get: planning a three-year-old’s birthday party, drawing the pictures for her sister’s book and babysitting…for triplets! Unfortunately Piper schedules these things all for the same weekend. As if she hasn’t heard, “Piper Read, you’re in trouble” before! Piper finds out that bringing home the bacon takes more than just doing the work, you have to have a good plan and good friends to get all the jobs done. And it helps a lot to get your homework done first too. Author: Kimberly Willis Holt

• Read Chapter One Piper Reed Gets a Job
• Join the Piper Reed Fan Club
• Piper Reed Gets a Job on CD

To find out how The Gypsy Club started and more about Piper Reed, try her other two books, or try out one of these other spunky girls, Clementine or Ramona.

Dessert and Junie B. would be good friends. Junie B. would definately want to go to Dessert’s house for dinner. Dessert’s family owns a restaurant and her family gets to eat the experiments. They like food so much that Dessert is successful when she convinces her family that they really should eat dessert first. (My mom would never have gone for that!)

One day Dessert’s mom makes something especially wonderful and keeps it in the frig with a “do not eat” sign on it. Dessert can’t help herself. She’s a foodie (a person who especially loves food). Dessert has to peek. Then she has to take just a tiny nibble. By the time a few days go by she’s nibbled every last crumb until the dish is empty.

When the especially wonderful dessert is pulled out of the frig for the big event, Dessert’s day starts to go really bad. Her Mom is not happy about the empty plate!

If you are a fan of Junie B. Jones or Ramona or Piper Reed - Dessert will be a good friend too. She figures things out her own way.

Read Chapter One

Madeleine spends her summers in Paris helping her Uncle in his restaurant. A summer in Paris sounds nice, until you meet Uncle Lard, a greedy, mean bully that rules his restaurant, The Squealing Pig, with an iron hand. Jealous of Madeleine’s natural cooking skills, Uncle Lard will only allow Madeleine to wash dishes and run errands.

One day, Uncle Lard runs out of pate - pate is ground up liver spread on things like crackers - it’s one of those fancy foods, like escargot (snails), that it is hard to imagine people actually eat! But Uncle Lard likes his favorite “mixed innards pate” and when he runs out, he sends Madeleine to buy some. Madeleine discovers a small, shabby food shop with a very mysterious owner, Madame Pamplemousse.  Madame sells Madeleine “pate of sea serpent” which becomes a huge hit at The Squealing Pig. It is such a hit that Uncle Lard must have more and he has no idea how to make it.  He sends Madeleine to spy on Madame and steal her pate recipe.

Madame has a different plan for Madeleine though, a plan that puts that recipe stealing Uncle Lard in his place and launches Madeleine as the city’s newest master chef. Author: Rupert Kingfisher

• PBS Kids: Virtual Kitchen
• Spatulatta Cooking for Kids Online
• Cookalotamus Kids
• Cafe ZOOM Recipes
• Exploratorium: Science of Cooking
• IMCPL Reading Guides for Kids: Dig In! Books that Cook

Clementine likes to know what the rules are, especially at school. That way she can keep herself from making mistakes. When her regular teacher, Mr. DMatz, becomes a finalist for the Adventures for Teachers Contest and leaves school for a week, Clementine has to get used to the rules of her new substitute teacher…and she doesn’t understand them one bit.

When the Principal announces that Clementine and her friends can help Mr. D’Matz win the Adventures for Teachers Contest by writing a recommendation letter for him, Clementine has a better idea, she’ll write a letter alright, a great letter, a letter that will guarantee he loses - and get rid of that awful substitute teacher forever. Author: Sara Pennypacker

• Read Chapter One Clementine’s Letter
• Watch a Longer Video Interview with Sara Pennypacker
• Official Sara Pennypacker Website
• Clementine’s Letter on CD