Grade 2-4–Judy Moody knows a lot about the American Revolution and is excited when her family takes a trip to Boston to visit the main sites along the Freedom Trail. The third-grader makes friends with a girl from England and gets a bit of the British perspective as well as a pen-pal relationship. The girls read some of Ben Franklin's sayings and make up their own, such as Fish and little brothers stink after three days. Upon returning home, Judy declares freedom from hair brushing and the right to her own bathroom.
The first day of third grade puts Judy Moody in a mad-face mood. She just knows everyone will come back from summer vacation with word T-shirts, like "Disney World" or "Jamestown: Home of Pocahontas." All Judy has is a plain old no-words T-shirt. She'll have to go to a new classroom, with a new desk, and she won't have an armadillo sticker with her name on it like she did last year. And knowing her luck, she'll end up sitting next to Frank, the boy who eats paste. For breakfast her dad makes eggs with the yellow middle broken, and her younger "bother," Stink, thinks he knows everything now that he's starting second grade.
In this sequel to "Judy Moody," jealousy rears its ugly head when classmate Jessica Finch gets her picture on the front page of the newspaper for winning a spelling bee. When Judy sets off on her own pursuit of fame, she might become infamous instead.
Judy Moody did not set out to save the world. She set out to win a contest. A Band-Aid contest. It all started with the Crazy-Strip contest - and the dream that she, Judy Moody, might one day see her very own adhesive-bandage design covering the scraped knees of thousands. But when her "Heal the World" motif merits only an honorable mention, Judy Moody realizes it's time to set her sights on something bigger. Class 3T is studying the environment, and Judy is amazed to learn about the destruction of the rain forest, the endangered species (not) in her own backyard, and her own family's crummy recycling habits.
Gr. 2--4. The pesky little brother in McDonald's popular Judy Moody series gets his own book and tells his own story here. Little is the word for James ("Stink") Moody; he's short, the shortest kid in his second-grade class. Is he shrinking? Judy is his bossy older sister, but he learns to handle her. For Presidents' Day, Stink's hero is not big tall Lincoln but another James, James Madison, the shortest president ever. The narrative is fun and laced with puns--from Mt. Trashmore to "newt in shining armor," and it's peppered with black-and-white illustrations, including comics ("The Adventures of Stink") reflecting Stink's triumphant fantasies.
