How to use this Page

Herbie Jones. by Suzy Kline. 1985. Puffin Books. 96 pages. ISBN: 978069811939

 Third grader Herbie Jones has a lot on his plate in this 1985 school story. He’s sick of being in the lowest reading group, to the point that he has actually started studying his spelling words. He’s also been invited to a girl’s birthday party, to which he brings a most unfortunately inappropriate gift, and a short while later, he’s forced to go into the girls’ bathroom to face an apparent ghost. On top of that, he has to visit the Reading Supervisor and talk his way out of trouble when he’s caught sneaking off for lunch on a class trip.

In a lot of ways, Herbie is a lot like contemporary chapter book heroes - especially Alvin Ho. He has the same worries and anxieties shared by many third graders past and present, and his voice is very authentically eight years old. I’m not sure reading groups are divided up quite the same way now as they were in the 1980s and 1990s, but I definitely remember being aware at all times of who was in which group when I was in elementary school, so that part rang very true for me. I also loved Suzy Kline’s depiction of boy/girl interaction, and the slow emergence of co-ed friendships that starts to occur around this age. I could see some of the same behaviors and characteristics in Herbie and his classmates that I see in the characters from the Horrible Harry books.

Probably my favorite thing about the story is all the references to Charlotte’s Web. I know third grade is when I first read that book, and I think that is still the grade where most kids read it. The fact that Herbie and his friends read and discuss the book makes them that much more realistic, and also provides great positive reinforcement for kids who might not otherwise see the relevance of an assigned book. It’s also great how Herbie actually analyzes the text in order to help the girls in the lowest reading group realize the good qualities of spiders. It’s a great early example of close reading, and is likely to encourage kids who have not yet read Charlotte’s Web to pick up a copy.

It’s hard to pinpoint the specific things that make this book feel dated to me, but it definitely read like an older book. The illustrations probably helped me to draw that conclusion, since the kids have very 80’s clothes and hair. I also doubt kids are asked to clap erasers in their classrooms these days, and names like Lance, Margie and even Herbie sound like the names of much older people than third graders. I think it would also be difficult to find a 95-cent cheeseburger. They’re not even on the dollar menu at McDonald’s nowadays! Still, though, Herbie Jones and its sequels (Herbie Jones and the Class Gift, Herbie Jones and the Hamburger Head, and What’s the Matter with Herbie Jones?) are all still in print, and I think their fresh 21st century covers will appeal much more to kids than the original covers. All in all, this first book in the series - which was also Suzy Kline’s first book, period - is a gentle read filled with all the concerns and questions faced by a third grader, and it will appeal in particular to readers (and parents) who aren’t into a lot of technology talk and toilet humor.

I borrowed Herbie Jones from my

0 Comments on Old School Sunday: Review: Herbie Jones by Suzy Kline as of 4/22/2012 10:58:00 AM

Add a Comment

In this holiday installment from the popular Horrible Harry series, narrator Doug is worried about his best friend, Harry. Their classmates in room 3B are excited for the various Winter holidays they celebrate, including Kwanzaa, Three Kings Day, and Korean New Year, but Harry just isn’t himself. He hasn’t done a single horrible thing to anyone, and he’s alarmingly quiet during class. He’s not even interested in Zuzu, the new student from Lebanon. When the class learns that Harry’s great-grandfather is in a nursing home, however, they plan a special visit, and by the time Secret Santa rolls around, Harry is up to his old tricks once more.

What I like most about this chapter book is that it’s one of the few holiday titles that is truly appropriate to share in a public school or public library setting. Many children’s holiday books focus on just one of the major December holidays – Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s Day – thus always leaving out those who don’t participate in that particular celebration. This book, which already includes a cast of refreshingly diverse characters, takes a much more inclusive approach, allowing the characters’ previously established cultural identities to dictate which holidays will be discussed. As it turns out, Christmas (which is, admittedly, still basically presented as the “default” celebration), takes a back seat, allowing the reader to explore celebrations such as Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Three Kings Day, and Korean New Year. Each holiday gets its own chapter, and within those chapters, there are short lessons, breaking down for the reader the basics of how a given holiday is observed. These sections do sometimes interrupt the story, taking the reader out of the action and into a more didactic, textbook-like writing style, but they provide accurate and age-appropriate explanations for the ways different cultures celebrate their Winter holidays.

Fans of the series, especially, will also find themselves drawn into Doug’s concerns for Harry. Though Doug has proven time and again that Harry isn’t always so horrible, readers of the series know of Harry’s antics and will empathize greatly with Doug’s desire to see that interesting, if disgusting behavior return. The suspense about why Harry is in such a daze doesn’t last long enough in my opinion, and I wished for more interaction and plot development surrounding his strange new behavior, but the author’s decision to focus on the great-grandfather’s new home in the nursing home also worked well, especially when it comes to considering ways to reach out during the holiday giving season.

Horrible Harry and the Holidaze will resonate best with die-hard Horrible Harry fans. I think it also has a place in classrooms where kids celebrate a variety of holidays and teachers want to make sure not to give preference to just one.

I borrowed Horrible Harry and the Holidaze from my local public library.