Richard Best AKA "the beast" has to repeat the second grade. He is embarrased and ashamed about this and does not want to start school again that September. He is not so nice to most of the kids in his class, he calls them babies. By the end of the book he works together with them to win the weekly banner and discovers that his classmates are not so bad and are not "babies" like he thought.

I enjoyed this book because it details a child and how he/she must feel to be held back. The writer did a good job at pulling you into the book with the details, you really feel like you are there and experiencing the situation with the students.

This would be a good book to give a child and his or her parents if that child is held back a grade in school. Or to read to your class if you know you have a student who is repeating that grade once again. Let the students talk about the story and how to deal with not only their personal feelings, but with their classmates feeling also.