Phineas L. MacGuire . . . Erupts!: The First Experiment (From the Highly Scientific Notebooks of Phineas L. MacGuire) - Hardcover

Dowell, Frances O'Roark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1416901957 ISBN 13: 9781416901952

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2006

Synopsis

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PHINEAS L. MACGUIRE,
BOY-SCIENTIST EXTRAORDINAIRE, AKA MAC:

1. He's allergic to purple, telephone calls, and girls, and can prove it.

2. He's probably the world's expert on mold, including which has the highest stink potential.

3. He does not have a best friend. He does, however, have an un-best friend, who he does not -- repeat, not -- want to upgrade to best-friend status.

But disaster strikes when his teacher pairs Mac and his un-best friend together for the upcoming science fair. Worse, this un-best friend wants the project to be on dinosaurs, which is so third grade. Worse still, it seems as though everyone else in his class finds the un-best friend as unlikable as Mac does. But, being a boy-scientist, once Mac notices this, he just might have to do some investigating.

This very funny young middle-grade novel includes tantalizingly grue- some experiments for exploding your own volcanoes and imploding marshmallows.

About this title

About the Author:

Frances O’Roark Dowell is the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Dovey Coe, which won the Edgar Award and the William Allen White Award; Where I’d Like to Be; The Secret Language of Girls and its sequels The Kind of Friends We Used to Be and The Sound of Your Voice, Only Really Far Away; Chicken Boy; Shooting the Moon, which was awarded the Christopher Medal; the Phineas L. MacGuire series; Falling In; the critically acclaimed The Second Life of Abigail Walker; Anybody Shining; Ten Miles Past Normal; Trouble the Water; the Sam the Man series; and The Class. She lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina. Connect with Frances online at FrancesDowell.com.

Preston McDaniels is the illustrator of the Phineas L. MacGuire series and Cynthia Rylant’s Lighthouse Family series. He lives in Aurora, Nebraska, with his wife and two daughters.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 2-4–What do you do when your best friend moves in the second week of 4th grade? That is the situation facing Phineas Listerman MacGuire (Mac). Everyone in class already has a best friend, except for the new kid–Mac Robbins, known as Mac R., who has gone out of his way to alienate his classmates. The one bright light in Macs life is the science fair in a few weeks. He is a scientist who specializes in volcanoes, a passion that his friend Marcus shared. When Mac R. is assigned to be his partner, Mac is sure it will be a disaster. Surprisingly, he finds that the new kid has some good ideas about their project, has a talent in art, and isnt as tough as he pretends to be. His real name is actually Ben. Though their science project hits a few bumps along the way, the volcano has a successful eruption and it looks like Mac just might have a new best friend. Three science experiments are appended, including, of course, an erupting volcano. Readers who enjoy Suzy Klines Herbie Jones (Putnam) and Horrible Harry books (Viking) will find Mac appealing.–Terrie Dorio, Santa Monica Public Library, CA
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About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1416901957
• ISBN 13: 9781416901952
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176
• Illustrator: McDaniels Preston