Review of Marty Maguire

Marty Maguire


Title:  Marty Maguire
Author:  Kate Messner
Illustrated By:  Brian Floca
Genre:  Comedy and Humor
Interest Level:  2nd to 5th Grade
Grade Reading Equivalent:  3.8
Guided Reading Level:  O
DRA Level:  34

Plot Summary:
   A young third grader, Marty Maguire, enjoys frog catching and pretending to be save the chimpanzees with Jane Goodall.  Her world is turned upside down when her teacher announces she will play the role of a princess in the class play.  This humorous story follows Marty's journey as they practice for the class play.  She comes up with a "Marty-like" plan to use a real frog as the frog prince rather than a stuffed frog.  Her plan is revealed as a surprise to all during the big night.

Christian/Religious Beliefs:  A raccoon that her mother takes care of is referred as "God's raccoon".

Authority Roles:  Marty doesn't want to play the role of the frog princess since it is too girly.  She tells her teacher that she can't take the role.  then she tells her mom that she isn't going to do it.  Her mother tells her that she will and that is the end of it.  Later, her teacher discusses it again and Marty has a chance of heart.  To herself, she calls her teacher "Princess-Pushing Tattle-Tale".

Profanity/Language/Violence:  Name calling - She calls someone to herself "Bossy Pants" and "Frosting Face Messy Mouth".  To herself, she admits that she can't name call so she doesn't use them out loud.
Stupid is used.

Kissing/Sex: Marty has to kiss a frog as part of the play.

Discussion Topics:

• Honesty - Marty lying to her teacher about fixing the costume and sneaking in the real frog
• Friendships - Marty's friendship with Annie with different interests which created changes in their friendship but they can still be friends.

What did we think?  My daughter thoroughly enjoyed this humorous book and was anxious to see what other adventures Marty Maguire would get herself into next.  I am excited to add another author to our list of books to read.

What is More Than Just a Cover all about?

You might be curious what More Than Just a Cover is all about.  How did review of my review of children's literature begin?  Do I just really enjoy children's literature?  Actually, as a former elementary teacher, I do enjoy children's literature but that wasn't my main motive to begin this blog.

When my daughter was in the first grade, her reading level was on a second and third grade level.  She would come home with various books from her school library. Some of the books I liked, but others I didn't feel comfortable with her reading them.  Some of the books she could read were not on her first grade maturity level.  Other books had content that wasn't necessary for her to read quite yet.  There are so many fantastic books out there for her that meet the criteria I was looking for.  We just had to find them.  

The next school year came and she was reading a lot faster than I could keep up.  My daughter now can read on a 5th grade level and boy, does that affect the variety of topics when reading!  She would come home with a book and be halfway into a book before I could even examine it.  We discussed different things to look for in a book which was helpful.  However, she is only 7. 

In my search for great books I tried to find a book review website similar to movie reviews to help my mission.  Focus on the Family has a website that offers book reviews but the book selection could not keep up with my avid reader.  Finally, I decided I would give it a go with my own personal insights from reading books.

I plan on reading the book then offering a summary of the book as well as noting different aspects of the book.  There will be certain categories that parents and I will disagree on.  Please keep in mind, I am only sharing my view on the book and things I found in the book.  I hope the reviews will be helpful for parents out there who find themselves curious what their child is reading.  Also I hope it helps parents find a new book for their avid readers to read. I am also to hear from parents of series they have discovered so we can add to our list of favorites!