Cody's Secret Admirer

Betsy Duffey

ISBN 10: 0613229770 ISBN 13: 9780613229777

Publisher: Bt Bound, 2000

Synopsis

A Valentine from a secret admirer. What could be worse?February is going fine for third-grader Cody Michaels -- until one day when he comes home from school to find a valentine addressed to him, and signed by a secret admirer! Yikes. Who can it be? And what does it mean? A third grader isn't ready for a girlfriend, at least not Cody. In Betsy Duffey's third book featuring Cody Michaels, Valentine's Day just keeps getting worse. As if a secret admirer isn't bad enough, soon Cody begins getting the idea that his parents are fixing to put him into an arranged marriage!With realistic paintings in black and white by Ellen Thompson and Betsy Duffey's perfectly-timed sense of humor, Cody's Secret Admirer is the ideal antidote to give any third grader in a rush to grow up.

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-4-In this light, fast-paced novel, Cody Michaels's overactive imagination blows small incidents into memorable events. The nine year old is alternately horrified and intrigued when he receives a mushy valentine from a secret admirer. Pretending to be Double-O Cupid, he begins spying on his female classmates with disastrous results. In the middle of this muddle, he makes a second discovery. The Avanis, future house guests from India, are bringing him a surprise that will "become a member of his family." Cody, now preoccupied by love interests, wildly jumps to the conclusion that he is about to become the victim of an arranged marriage. The tension is quickly and satisfactorily resolved when Mr. Avani gives Cody a pet turtle and a sixth-grade girl tells him that she sent the valentine by mistake. While Cody seems as natural and unintentionally funny as the boy readers met in the earlier two books, his "Top Ten" lists scattered throughout the story have a forced ring to them. However, Duffey successfully demonstrates her intimate knowledge of her audience in her realistic classroom scenes and in her portrayal of third-grade social dynamics. The Valentine's Day preoccupations, preparations, and party are particularly good. Thompson's appealing black-and-white illustrations build on the humor found in the text. While this is not the best book about Cody, it will find a ready audience.
Maggie McEwen, Coffin Elementary School, Brunswick, ME
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 2^-3. In the third funny chapter book about nine-year-old Cody, he is appalled to receive a valentine. It's "gross." Who can his secret admirer be? And what if his parents' friends from India are arranging a surprise marriage for him? Luckily, their surprise turns out to be, not a bride, but a pet turtle. What kids will relate to is Cody's latest hobby of making top 10 lists, from "Top Ten Things You Hate to Hear Your Mother Say" to "Top Ten Things I Love." There is a wonderful immediacy to Cody's loves and hates, caught as he is "in that in-between age between first love and Sesame Street." It's the combination of the cosmic and the trivial that hits home. Hazel Rochman

About this edition

• Publisher: Bt Bound
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0613229770
• ISBN 13: 9780613229777
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 89
• Illustrator: Ellen Thompson