Ms. Hannah is Bananas! by Dan Gutman, illustrated by Jim Paillot

Gr. 1-3. Ms. Hannah, the art teacher, is completely bananas, at least in A.J.'s opinion, that is! She wears a dress made of recycled pot holders and she doesn't believe in garbage. She thinks every last piece of trash can be recycled to become beautiful art and she proves this when she adds A.J.'s tissue to her ball of paint-speckled newspaper! Throughout the story, A.J. struggles with his negative feelings toward art and a few of his fellow classmates, but in the end he finds a unique way of combining kinetic and performance art with friendship to create an unforgetable sculpture! A humorous, short chapter book with illustrations, kids are sure to become fast fans of the My Weird School series and all its crazy teachers!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley's Journal by Jeff Kinney

Greg Heffley narrates/illustrates his middle grade school year month by month. His discusses his brothers, Rodrick (older) and Manny (younger) and his friend Rowley who seems to be even more unpopular than Greg is (at least in Greg's way of thinking). His numerous adventures include building a Haunted House with Rowley, his run in with high schoolers on Halloween, joining the safety patrol, wrestling, building muscle with his homemade gym, playing a tree in the school musical The Wizard of Oz, playing with the Big Wheel Rowley got him for Christmas, building the world's biggest snowman, writing comics for the school paper, fighting Rowley, and of course The Cheese.

Boys will love this book! Girls will also find it enjoyable as it shows a through development of character. Kids love these diary/journal/memoir books and this one is funny and really makes the reader think as it doesn't always protray Greg as the nicest guy.

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Kinney, J. (2007). Diary of a wimpy kid: Greg Heffley's journal. New York: Amulet Books.