The Girls Get Even

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Overview

As Halloween approaches, the three Malloy sisters find themselves trying to get even with the four Hatford brothers, who have been playing tricks on them since they moved to West Virginia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780756966638
Publisher:	Random House Childrens Books
Publication date:	01/01/2002
Pages:	129
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

About the Author

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor grew up in Anderson, Indiana, and Joliet, Illinois. She loved to make up stories and write little books when she was growing up, and sold her first story when she was 16 for $4.67. Naylor worked as a teacher and an editor before she began to write full-time in 1960. She sold her first book for children in 1965. Her book Shiloh won the Newbery Medal in 1992, and later became part of a quartet of novels.Phyllis Reynolds Naylor lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland with her husband, Rex who is a speech pathologist. They have two grown sons and four grandchildren.

Table of Contents

Editorial Reviews

In this sequel to The Boys Start the War, the feuding Hatford brothers and Malloy sisters continue to plot to get the best of each other. The annual Halloween costume parade provides the opportunity for a bet, in which the losing team will become the winners' slaves for a month. This leads to a flurry of spying, creative costume designing, and sabotage. The tone of this book is lighthearted and humorous. One gets the impression that both parties in the feud are thoroughly enjoying themselves, though neither would admit it. With a reading level of 4.7 and characters aged 11 and under, this book is best suited for younger readers, but sixth or seventh graders may give it a try if they are looking for a short, funny book.

The ALAN Review - Jennifer Moreland

Very much a sequel to "The Boys Start the War" [F 15 93], this has the same joyful combination of farce, embarrassment, and vulgar insult as the Malloy girls try to outwit the Hartford boys in their small West Virginia town. It's not as funny the second time around; some of the Halloween costume jokes echo those in the first book, and the power game ("Whichever group wins first prize--you or us--will be the masters and the other group will be the slaves") goes on far too long. Still, Naylor captures the way kids play, especially the intensity about enemies, and the plot is full of nice reversal as each group loses, gets even, and loses again. Their parents don't get any of it, and that's also part of the fun.

Hazel Rochman