line

CM Archive
CM Archive Book Review line
HERE SHE IS, MS. TEENY-WONDERFUL!

Martyn Godfrey.
Richmond Hill, ON: Scholastic-TAB Publications, 1984.
172pp., paper, $2.95.
ISBN 0-59071482-1. CIP.


Subject Heading:
Teenage girls-Juvenile fiction.


Grades 4-6 / Ages 9-11

Reviewed by Barbara Conquest.

Volume 13 Number 4
1985 July


The over-riding ambition of Carol Weatherspoon's life is to be a "five-canner," someone who can jump over five side-by-side garbage cans on a bike without wiping out. Although Carol does not know it, her mother, who has completely different ambitions for her daughter, enters her in the first national Ms. Teeny-Wonderful contest. Carol refuses to go until she discovers the prizes are a trip to Disney World and, more importantly, enough money to buy her dream-bike. Only after her reluctant acquiescence does she admit even to herself that she is pathologically afraid of airplanes.

After terrifying flight over, the girl from St. Albert finds herself unimpressed with the wonders of Toronto as she copes with the ladylike Campbell twins who take a particular dislike to the tomboy Carol. They are determined to win at all costs, even to the extent of ruining her Parade of Charm dress. Carol's choice of performing a "six-canner" for the talent portion of the contest leaves the Campbell girls complacent about their sure win, and Carol's mother more than a little distraught.

Carol and her friend Wally of St. Albert, Alberta, are the freshest, funniest, and most genuine young fictional characters since Bruno and Boots of MacDonald Hall. The author's sure touch with current adolescent idiom and his homorous, likeable characters should make this book a sure winner with both boys and girls in the upper elementary grades. Many junior high students will enjoy it too.


Barbara Conquest, D. S. MacKenzie J.H.S., Edmonton, AB.
line indexes

HOME | TITLES | AUTHORS | MEDIA | AGE/GRADE | FEATURES

1971-1979 | 1980-1985 | 1986-1990 | 1991-1995

line

The materials in this archive are copyright © The Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission Copyright information for reviewers

Young Canada Works

cm@umanitoba.ca