Cool Zone with the Pain and the Great One

More adventures at school and at home with Jake, a first-grader, and his older sister Abigail, known to each other as the Pain and the Great One.

Audiobook (CD) - The Pain is the little brother, The Great One is the older sister, and The Cool Zone is their school. The novel is set up as vignettes about their family and school life with The Pain and The Great One taking turns telling different stories from their own (unique!0 point of view). This is a great audio book choice because the narrator does a great job of changing voices for each character.

Reviewed by Julie M. Prince for Kids @ TeensReadToo.com

Jake, also known as The Pain to his big sister, has plenty to deal with at school. From the bully who steals his magnifying glass to the disastrous Bring Your Pet to School Day, navigating the first grade is no simple matter. Luckily his big sister, Abigail The Great One, has been through it all before. When she's not too busy being great, she lends a helping hand, and in the process, she finds that even third graders need a little help now and then.

Judy Blume has the absolute greatest knack for illustrating real problems kids face every day -- the ones most adults blow off or overlook. Blume dissects and magnifies kid issues, bringing to light exactly why The Great One wants to change her name and why The Pain is so distraught about the loss of his toy elephant. No problem is too small to be important to the main characters.

Take real kid voices and real kid problems, add in Blume's classic humor and anecdotes, and you have a formula for success. What a fun companion to SOUPY SATURDAYS WITH THE PAIN & THE GREAT ONE.

With seven brand-new stories, this book has excellent read aloud or read alone appeal! ( )

Reading this one with the kiddos. Q loved Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and he requested more Judy Blume. The kids really liked it -- little brother tells one chapter, big sister tells the next. Enough illustrations to keep younger children interested. ( )