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Summary: This is a wonderful book...
Review: ... I'm 23 years old, and I still love this book. It was an ever present staple of my childhood reading library. This book was my first paperbackpurchase, which I bought after I became really obsessed with the book and was denied from taking it out of the library anymore, because it seemed that I -always- ahd it checked out. This book was absoulutly great because it shows how even "big fat theives" need friends too. When a girl named Elsie Edwards is a new student in Jenny Sawyers 5th grade class, the class makes fun of her (behind her back of course) because of how heavy she is. When some of the class' lunch money starts disappearing, they discover that it was Elsie who's been taking it. After a while, after Elsie, a math whiz, tutors Jenny in math, Jenny befriends Elsie and so does alot of kids. The ending really shocked me when I first read it, and I know you'll be shocked too! I highly recommend this book to any parent looking for great reading material for their kids. In fact, I was so shocked to see that Amazon carried this title, that I actually placed a copy of it on my OWN Wishlist, so that my children can enjoy it when they've grown
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Summary: Elsie has changed
Review: ... Nothings fair in fifth grade is so far on of my favoritebooks. I'm not quit done with the book but it is good so far. Myfavorite part is when Jenny and Elsie get to be friends. I don'tlike how the dad is demanding. The book has in a way a lesson nomatter how different some people are from you shouldn't make fun ofthem because on the inside you might be the exact same. I really likehow the book can get really exciting and then it goes to having anormal life. The girls in the book were really mean at the beginningat the book but shaped up in the middle. I highly recommend this book.
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Summary: Barthe DeClements is a genius!
Review: Barthe DeClements has created the most wonderful book for fifth-graders to read. Kids of all ages and grades would appreciate it as well, but I imagine that it is a target for most fifth-graders. There is humor, for sure. Cracks about Elsie Edwards' weight, such as when she's walking with Jenny, Diane, and Sharon, some sixth-grade boys say the bunch is "three flagpoles and a beach ball" and "three asparagus strings and a tomato". Elsie at first has no friends, and is disliked by everyone for stealing lunch money and scrounging at lunch time. But Jenny befriends her, and convinces Diane and Sharon to give her a chance as well. This is a read full of friendship, the real world, and fifth grade. And I declare one thing about the author of this book: Barthe DeClements is a genius!
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Summary: Is Life Fair?
Review: Have you every known someone you didn't like who was fat ,ugly, and a thief? "Nothings Fair In the 5th Grade" is a very good story by Barthe DeClements.The storyis about a girl named Elsise,who was first known as a fat redhead thief.When Elsise first came to Jenny school she caused so much confusion.By steling money and lying.At the same time Jenny was not doing so good in math and Elsise was the smartest girl in math in there class.So Elsise was Jenny only hope.Read on to find out what is Jenny going to do,is she going to fail math or get help by Elsise so she could get a A+.
"Nothings Fair In the 5th Grade" is a good book because it shows how over weight people are treated badly.The protagonist Elsise is accused for a lot of things and is made fun of because of her weight.It is also a good book because it shows you that the one you least expect are the ones who can help you.Elsise is the smartest girl in there class in math and Jenny is failing in math.I recommend you to read this book to find out what happens next.
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Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK FOR YOUR CHILDREN
Review: I am absolutely appalled by this book. I read it as a child, and it encouraged my extreme fear of fat-ness. I remember thinking, after reading of this book, "There must be nothing worse in the whole world than being fat." After all, Elsie is labeled as "lazy", "undisciplined", "unworthy", "gross", "a pig", merely because she is a large person. No one in this book begins to accept Elsie for who she is until she loses weight. This book is only another vehicle of the lethal message of our culture that "fat is bad". I say "lethal" because for the past year, I have been in the hospital for the anorexia I developed as a child. I almost died. It's really time we all started asking ourselves "why must the human body be a source of shame?". After all, our body is our greatest earthly possession. It is the container of the human soul.
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Summary: Extremely disappointing
Review: I bought this book on the strength of the reviews I read in Amazon, and all I can guess is that these reviewers are friends of the author because this is not a good book at all. My nine year old daughter and I read it together and she was very upset by the constant ridiculing of Elsie, the fact that the author had to restate over and over again what a freak she was, as fat as a circus act, can't look at her feet, has multiple chins, etc. Okay, we get it, she's fat! Now can we get on to the humanity of the child? The other girls, including the narrator, were unlikeable for so long that we almost didn't care when they started to realize Elsie was a person with feelings. And my daughter was very concerned with Elsie's mother's abuse of her, and very much hoping the mother would come to some kind of understanding of her daughter by the end. I read the last two chapters before she did, and when I told her that no such event occurred she refused to read the end of the book. As a writer myself, I was disappointed by the author's lack of a grip on story structure. The characters had very little arc, and there were no likeable characters to relate to. In addition, the utterly terrifying chapter where the children are kidnapped by a truck driver and taken outside the city limits has no place in a book like this. Nor did the slap on the wrist outcome by the police. My daughter also was very confused by this. I respect the opinions of those who liked this book, but I couldn't disagree more.
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Summary: An Old Favorite, Still The Best
Review: I have read so many books in my life that I sometimes feel that I have warped my sense of reality. But of all the books I have ever read, and that has to be at least thousands, this is the book I have read the most. I am 21 now, I have been reading in since I was in third grade. But I don't just read it, or remember it as some cheexy book from when I was a kid. Barthe DeClements was a school psychologist for many years, and that comes through in her writing. There's not a character in this book that rings false, I could picture each one of them as someone I knew. All these years later, the story is so familiar to me that I should be tired of it. But I am not. This really is a classic for kids, because everyone dislikes and them relates to Elsie. Elsie, of course, goes on to become the heroine of two more of DeClements novels, "How Do You Lose Those Ninth Grade Blues" and "Seventeen And In-Between". These are also rich novels, and they bring a happy end to characters we've loved forever. But I know everyone else wants another sequel! Start with this incomparable work, and then get to know the rest of DeClements fiction. You'll never forget it, trust me.
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Summary: A book in which everyone stars
Review: I read "Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade" because I could not find any books that looked at all interesting. I started reading it thinking it would be a boring book about nothing in particular. I was wrong. The awful things that are done to us by other human beings - and that we do to other human beings ourselves - are made so realistic through the simple, uncomplicated views of fifth grade students. Many people will realise Elsie's struggle with her weight, and the rejection she feels because of it, which adds to the power of this book, which should be read by people well outside the 9-12 year age group for its message on acceptance.
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Summary: AWSOME BOOK
Review: I read the book in fifth grade and loved it. I had to start a new school this year and this book reminded me of me!!!
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Summary: This is A really good book!!!!
Review: I read this book and I think it's great!!!! I think there should be more books for kids and teens, especially girls about kids and teens that are overweight because I myself have had almost 15 years experience of being overweight, I will be 15 in April and it's really painful to go through life like this and people that have always been skinny just don't understand me and other people like me, especially because I'm a teenager, people automatically assume that I should be like toothpick thin and I think that if there were more books like this, maybe a few more people would be more understanding, and I just really liked the book a lot!!! I could relate to it, probably 100 percent!!!!! I hope that in the future I will be able to go to the bookstore, and regular stores and find books on the topic of overweight and obese children and teenagers. I also think that there should be self help books for overweight, obese, and morbidly obese children and teenagers.
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