Just Grace by Charise Mericle Harper

Book Jacket

Here are some things you will find in this book:

1.  Crinkles the cat, at least until he disappears.
2.  Fantastic friends like Mimi and the glamorous Augustine Dupre, who is from France.
3.  A boy with some unfortunate habits.
4.  And finally, four girls named Grace, which is entirely three Graces too many.

Here are some things you will not find in this book:

1.  A lost friend.
2.  The world's largest sandwich.
3.  A new neighbor who can do handstands.

Maybe they will be in the next book.  We will have to wait and see.

Review

Just Grace is a cute book that gives a younger spin to the "journal as a book" trend.  The added drawings and comics (especially great is the Not So Super superhero comics) are funny, but don't blend as well with the story as other books have done.  Like Happyface or Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, both of which blew me away with their awesomeness.

The story of a girl who tries to make someone feel better, but inadvertantly makes things worse, is a good one.  It's a perfectly fine book, but I have to say I didn't much care for it.  I think its biggest problem is that Grace doesn't sound like a grade schooler.  She is too clever and too observant.  If Harper would have run with that and made her a genius child, then fine.  But the language feels as though it is trying to dumb itself down, the whole of which just took me outside the story and made me too aware of the work that went into it.

Three out of five postcards.

Release Date:  April 2007
Reading Level:  Grade 2+
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection:  BLUESTEM


Don't believe me?  Check out these reviews of Just Grace:

Bugs and Bunnies
Mundie Kids