About this book:
“If getting tackled is the best way to make new friends, that’s okay with Jack. After all, starting fifth grade at a new school is even rougher than pee wee football. But how can he join the Lions and help Ellison build the Most Epic Bookmobile Bike Ever? Jack devises the perfect game plan–until he fumbles it with the most epic bike crash ever and a game day disaster.”
Series: Book #3 in the “Tree Street Kids” series. Review of Book #1, Here! and Book #2, Here!
Spiritual Content- Scriptures are quoted, read, & mentioned; A few Prayers; A few talks about God; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God; Jack and his sister are starting the year at their new, Christian school; Jack hasn’t prayed about joining the football team because he “figured God was like [his] dad—a Chicago Bears football fan. So why wouldn’t He root for the Lions too?”; Jack can talk to God in his head, but when he has to say a prayer out loud, it makes him feel itchy (but prays out loud for an event anyway); One of Jack’s friends doesn’t know a lot about praying and says “over and out” instead of “Amen”; Jack knows that his dad saying “The Lord will provide” is what parents say when they don’t want a kid to worry, but knows his dad trusts God, so he will too; Mentions of God & Jesus; Mentions of prayers, praying, & thanking God; Mentions of churches & church going; A few mentions of a colportage (someone who sold religious books door-to-door); A mention of a missionary; A mention of God using a book of poetry to change someone’s life; A mention of morning chapel at a Christian school; A mention of God shining a ray of sunshine on the bookmobile bike (which Jack thinks it’s like God had chosen it for a great mission); A mention of a picture (of a great idea) having a light on it like it was shone down from Heaven & an angel maybe singing then too;
*Note: A boy calls his mother “Mothership” as her code name over walk-talkies (thrice); A couple mentions of a book about dinosaurs.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: A ‘buzzkill’ (Midge to Jack), a ‘crummy’, a ‘dumb’, a ‘holy moly’, a ‘sheesh’, and an unfinished ‘what—the—?’; A bit of eye rolling; Jack tries to give his parents warning when he walks into a room so he doesn’t eavesdrop (though he still hears some of their conversation and it worries him); Pain, Injuries, & Blood/Bleeding (up to semi-detailed); Jack is taunted and chased by the neighborhood bully who tries to run him off the road (Jack is injured by this); Jack and the others try to make a deal with the bully, but the bully implies he wants Jack’s dog (which Jack is firm about not doing after seeing the bully yell at his own dog); Jack doesn’t want to disobey a referee in a game who tells him to stay back, but he is concerned about a friend; Mentions of pain, injuries, & blood/bleeding; Mentions of a bully (including Ellison saying that their neighborhood bully just needs to read the right book because books can change people, but Ruthie says the bully would need a library full of books to change him); A couple mentions of a bomb shelter; A couple mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of pig bladders used as a football a long time ago; A mention of an accident that killed a young girl’s parents; A mention of World War I; A mention of war; A mention of skull and crossbones on a map (representing a bully);
*Note: Jack is embarrassed by his mom licking her hand and putting it to his hair in front of the school bus; Jack has a couple of moments of missing his old home and friends; Jack yells at Midge to stay out of his room and stop touching his stuff (once); Jack later teases Midge about her being like a barnacle stuck to a whale when she wants to tag along with him wherever he goes; Jack is disappointed by not having a new friend to himself, but his mom says that you “make friends by being a good friend”; When playing touch football, Midge asks if they are all going to “bust some heads”; Ellison thinks a neighbor doesn’t like him because he’s black & the woman yells at him to stay off of her property (which Jack says is wrong of her to do, but Ellison says it happens a lot and it’s a lot harder when people “look at you like you did something wrong. Or don’t even look at you at all”; The woman yelling at Ellison hurts him and he isn’t the same for a week); *Spoiler* At the end, the woman comes up to Jack and Ellison and says about borrowing books from them *End of Spoiler*; Ellison shares about a book (‘Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry’) and how the main character’s family goes through racism (explaining to Midge that racism is “when one person treats another person badly or unfairly because they’re a different color or race”); Ellison wants to share books with others for them to understand him and others; Ellison plans to talk about why it’s important to read books by black authors as well in a speech; Jack doesn’t know how all moms “no matter their name, color, or hairdo” are able to give a kid the same look); There are book recommendations throughout the book & mentioned (‘Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry’ by Mildred D. Taylor, ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ by Frederick Douglass, ‘The Watsons Go to Birmingham’ by Christopher Paul Curtis, ‘The Jungle Book’ by Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Friendship’ by Mildred D. Taylor, ‘My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me’ by Maya Angelou, ‘A Light in the Attic’ by Shel Silverstein, ‘Charlotte’s Web’ by E.B. White, ‘The Narrative of Truth’ by Sojourner Truth, and a few more (there is the note that not all of the books are for children and to talk with a parent about reading them); Other books that are mentioned and quoted from, but not given as a recommended are Shakespeare, ‘Treasure Island’, ‘Matilda’, ‘The Joy of Cooking’, ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ by John Bunyan, ‘Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun’, ‘White Fang’, and ‘Selected Poems’ by Gwendolyn Brooks; Mentions of brand names & pop culture references (Nickelodeon Time Blaster clock, Chutes and Ladders, Nerf, Beanie Baby, Big Wheels, & Gatorade); Mentions of movies, TV shows, & fictional characters (101 Dalmatians, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman, Superman, Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz characters, & Robin Hood); Mentions of sport teams & a player (Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bulls, & William Perry); A few mentions of Arthuro Schomburg and how he was told there were “no history, no heroes” of people of his race, so he set out to read all about them; A couple mentions of the Newberry Medal; A mention of Narnia; A mention of Disney World; A mention of Dunkin’ Donuts; A mention of Blockbuster video store; A mention of Wishbone the dog; A mention of a shark named Jaws; A mention of Midge telling Jack that because he uses “fancy man deodorant now” he doesn’t stink.
Sexual Content-N/A.
-Jack Finch, age 10
P.O.V. of Jack
Set in 1995
192 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again more this series is over, but this book (like the prior two books) had such a childhood nostalgic feeling to it! Between the bike riding, friend groups, and doing a parade in their neighborhood, it felt like a very suburbs vibe and was so much fun!
It should be noted that I can’t stand football, but I even enjoyed those parts of this book, which should tell you a lot!
Midge steals the show in each one of these books and I just love her 😂 She reminds me of a cross between Constance from “The Mysterious Benedict Society” and D.W. from the TV show, Arthur, but way less sassy and much more well-mannered than those two.
This book had a little about facing racism and Jack’s best friend being black, but I thought it was done well and sincerely. We, unfortunately, see the bully Buzz again who I frankly don’t care for, but we have Jack learning some important lessons and learning to be a good friend—and a team player.
See y’all on Wednesday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
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