Book Title: Allie
Finkle’s Rules for Girls- Moving Day
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Author: Meg
Cabot
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Illustrator:
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Awards
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Book Type: chapter book
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Approx.
Reading Level: 5.5
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Age of
Content Appropriateness: grade 3 and up
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Date
Published: Feb. 2009
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Genre and
Topic: Realistic Fiction- humor- fourth grade
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Personal
Rating of the Book: 5 plus!
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ISBN: (13 or 10 digit) 978-0545040419
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Summary- Allie is a fourth
grade girl who is trying to figure it all out.
She loves science and math because they have rules. Rules that tell you just what to do. Life isn’t that way, though and Allie tries
to figure out the rules of friends, school and family in this great
series. In this first book, Allie is
facing a new house, new school and new friends. She also has to leave behind a best friend
who is not really much of a friend but Allie still wants to be a good friend to
her. Allie is a wonderful, smart, funny
fourth grade girl who makes mistakes and tries to learn from them. This series is great for boys and girls
alike because the themes of friends, family and school are universal.
Ideas for using this book
·
“The Stacks” is a part of the Scholastic website
that has an Allie
Finkle page. There are games and
discussions and a Q&A with Meg Cabot – this could be a great resource for
students who really enjoy the books. It
would also be good to put on a classroom resource webpage so students can
access it at home.
·
The themes in the book have to do with typical
fourth grade problems of moving, making new friends, dealing with bullies and
teachers and siblings. Students could
write a slice of life piece about one of the themes in the story.
·
Have students discuss what they have in common
with Allie. I like that she is not so
“girly” that boys won’t be able to relate to her.
·
Allie has rules she lives by- have students make
a list of rules they follow. These could
be about school, family or friends.
·
This book could be a lead in to a discussion
about character and friendship. Allie
does her best to treat others as she
would want to be treated. Have students
evaluate how she does and compare it to their own lives.
Vocabulary
Spatula- page 1 – a kitchen tool you use to scrape
bowls clean of frosting and batter
Habitrail- page 4 – a brand of hamster houses that
involve tubes and boxes so the hamster can crawl all over the place and pretend
it is burrowing.
First Impressions- page 82- what others think about
you when you first meet them
Gingerbread trim- page 88- not really made of
gingerbread but the fancy carved wood accents you see on old houses.
Terrarium – page 107- an enclosed ecosystem, usually
plants in a glass jar but small insects or other creatures could live there
too.
Trait of the 6 + 1 Traits to
Highlight
This book is perfect to highlight VOICE. The Allie character
tells her story with humor and a wonderful honesty. She knows when she messes up which is often
but that is what is great about her, she reflects on mistakes and learns from them. The story is told with a great sense of
humor but also we see that Allie has serious principles she lives by or at
least tries to live by. The strength of
her voice helps students who read this book see how they could resolve the same
issues with friends, school and family that they all go through as they move
from little kid to bigger kid and try and navigate life more
independently.
When the book opens Allie is spending time at her best
friend’s house, helping to frost cupcakes.
We learn that Mary Kay Shiner is actually not that great of a best
friend; she tends to be a little selfish and whiney. When she complains and cries to the baby
sitter about the fact that Allie got to lick the spatula, Allie ends up shoving
the spatula into Mary’s mouth but it doesn’t turn out well.
“But I should have known Mary Kay wouldn’t take it that
way. As a joke, I mean. And I should have known she’d start crying,
this for real, because the spatula went down her throat. But just a little! Like, it BARELY went
down. Maybe it touched her tonsils. But that’s it. Still. That is not a good example of treating your
friends as you would want them to treat you.
Also, it was all my fault. “ page
5
Concerns with This Book:
I have no concerns- just be prepared to read the whole six book series
and wish for more.
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