From the Publisher
Praise for MARTY MCGUIRE:
"Messner gets all the details of third grade right [and] Floca's black-and-white sketches are filled with movement and emotion...Believable and endearing characters in a realistic elementary-school setting will be just the thing for fans of Clementine and Ramona." --KIRKUS
Children's Literature - Sally S. Hoffman
The enthusiasm and excitement of young elementary students is exemplified by third-grader Marty McGuire. Marty's school has a motivating new speaker, Amelia Ranidae. She tells the students to create a project to help save the environment and win a mysterious award. Marty teams up with her best friend Anne to win, plus a little help from her Grandma Barb. The trio sets-up a box of worms in the school's cafeteria that will eat the students leftover food, thus eliminating waste and creating a fantastic fertilizer. Grandma Barb does however give a few simple rules; one being not to over feed the worms. Nevertheless, Marty's impatience gets the best of her, causing the worms to escape and making quite a few of her classmates upset. This is a fantastic book for new-chapter readers. The black-and-white sketches are found throughout the book and add a break for young readers. The language of Marty McGuire is the best part of the book from the "clickety-clackety shoes" to the "crocodile snap." These phrases give sound and strong visuals to anyone who reads the book. This is a perfect book for a classroom or at home. Reviewer: Sally S. Hoffman
School Library Journal
Gr 2–3—The spirited youngster introduced in Marty McGuire (Scholastic, 2011) returns. After Amelia Ranidae, the Frog Lady, speaks at a class assembly, she invites the children to compete in a contest to create the best Earth-friendly project. Marty and her friend Annie decide to make recycled paper, but after several attempts that include using Marty's birthday paper-doll collection and breaking her dad's food processor, the idea is no longer promising. As the girls try to figure out how to fix the mess, Marty's grandmother shows up and helps them. She also suggests another idea for them to try—a lunchroom worm farm. This project turns out to be a big hit, especially when the students think they can chuck all of their leftovers into the composter. Everything seems to go well until too much food gets dumped in the farm and the worms explode all over the cafeteria floor. Packed with eco-friendly ideas, this realistic, plot-driven early chapter book is a welcome addition to Earth Day or environmental units. The illustrations reflect the characters well, and the black-and-white drawings help to establish the mood. Readers of Annie Barrow's "Ivy and Bean" stories (Chronicle) or Megan McDonald's "Judy Moody" series (Candlewick) will enjoy Marty McGuire's adventures.—Melissa Smith, Royal Oak Public Library, MI
Kirkus Reviews
Third-grader Marty and her classmates are given a challenge by a visiting environmentalist: to develop Earth-friendly projects that she will then judge. Third-grade imaginations are untamed and funny. After an ill-conceived paper-making plan destroys her parents' food processor, Marty and her best friend Annie get involved in a worm-powered composting project that's supposed to help with wasted cafeteria food. Other classmates build a giant Super-Earth-Woman out of recycled materials, grow petunias and create a recycling-reminder buzzer. Marty, determined to win, is frustrated when her worms can't begin to keep up with the volume of garbage generated. She worries that all she has to show for her project is "a bunch of half-eaten carrot sticks and worm poop," and she's convinced that those will never save the planet. Floca's cheery black-and-white illustrations match the upbeat theme of the tale, and with at least one per brief chapter, they break up the text pages nicely. Marty's first-person commentary, sometimes just a tiny bit sarcastic, splendidly conveys the eroding innocence of middle-graders. A quick, amusing read with an easily digestible environmental message; it is a perfect match for its young intended audience. (Fiction. 6-9)
