Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You - Softcover

DeClements, Barthe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0590404628 ISBN 13: 9780590404624

Publisher: Scholastic, 1986

Synopsis

Helen thinks this year might be better than most. There are some neat people in her grade: her friend Louise, Leon, Jack Hanson, even Elsie Edwards.

But Helen's teacher turns out to be Mrs. Lobb. Lobb the Blob makes things so hard for Helen that she decides to live up to her nickname—"Bad Helen"—and do all the things she's always wanted to do.

Being bad is fun, till Helen finds out she might have to stay back a year. That's the last thing she wants to do. But what will it take to get herself out of trouble when she's been in it for so long?

"...this is also a good read, and Helen at her worst will undoubtedly provoke laughter as well as sympathy."
—ALA Booklist

About this title

About the Author

Barthe Declements is an author of children's and young adult books. Some of her published credits include Fourth Grade Wizards, Double Trouble, I Never Asked You to Understand Me, and Bite of the Gold Bug: A Story of the Alaskan Gold Rush (Once Upon America).

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8 Helen dreads the first day in sixth grade. Good in math and gifted on the pitcher's mound, she is a nonreader diagnosed as a behavior problem. Against the slice - of - life background of a skating party, pierced ears and overnights at friend Louise's, Helen loses the battle with the printed word. Mid-year, she transfers to the other sixth grade class, where the teacher lets her choose whether or not to study in the special ed classroom. Despite the label "retard," she decides to get the special help. Hard work results in progress. Given her caring parents, sympathetic principal and wholesome friends, the motivation for Helen's pranks and booby traps is obscure. DeClements fails to relate Helen's deliquency to her frustration or anger. In addition, since help is just down the hall, it is unrealistic for Helen to suffer for half the year before trying the special ed room. Still, cameo appearances by Jenny and Elsie from Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade (Viking, 1981) will attract readers to this less successful problem novel. Like Gilson's Do Bananas Chew Gum ? (Lothrop, 1980), Sixth Grade. . . illuminates the bleak world of the learning disabled while it entertains. Pat Harrington, Phoenix Public Library
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0590404628
• ISBN 13: 9780590404624
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 146