Book Reviews and More: A Case of the Meanies - Courtney Sheinmel and Jennifer A. Bell

Wednesday, 28 December 2016

A Case of the Meanies - Courtney Sheinmel and Jennifer A. Bell - Stella Batts Book 4

A Case of the Meanies
Stella Batts Book 4
Courtney Sheinmel (Author)
Jennifer A. Bell (Illustrator)
Sleeping Bear Press
ISBN 9781585361984
eISBN 9781627531153
ASIN B00DNJNJ6M

My oldest and I have read the first eight books in this series together this year. I have fallen behind on my reviewing but this book and this series is so good I am going to go back and review them all. My daughter loves these books. At the beginning of the year we were alternating books between three different series. But the last three books we have read were Stella Batts. My daughter loves these books and they are great book for her reading level and for us to read together. And I must declare that the Stella Batts books are my daughter’s favorite books of all the books we have read.

In each book Stella has a list of facts about herself. In this book it is: “In case you haven’t read my other books or you just don’t remember them so well, I’ll tell you a few things about me:

I live in Somers, California, with my parents and my sister, Penny.
Soon I’ll live with my brother Jack, too. But not yet, because Mom’s still pregnant with him.
We own a candy store called Batts Confections.
Okay, so I guess my parents are the owners, not Penny and me. But there are things named for us in the store—like Stella’s Fudge, and the Penny Candy Wall.
When the baby gets born, something will be named for him too, but not until then because Mom says that’s bad luck.
Also she and Dad keep changing their minds about his name, though Mom says Jack is the absolute final choice. Anyway, that’s not really about me, and this is my list.
I’m eight years old, which means I’m in third grade.
Writing is one of my favorite things to do. Obviously.”

Stella Batts writes books. And with each book she writes she learns a new lesson. If you have read the earlier Stella Batts book you know that Stella has had conflict with Joshua Lewis in her class for a long time. In this book things escalate, they escalate a lot. In this book Joshua decided to have his birthday party at Batts Confections and he invites everyone in their class except Stella. Stella tries to win Joshua over with kindness but it seems to backfire on her. But Stella becomes a superhero. Also in this book Mrs. Batts has the baby that has been expected since book one.

This book was an excellent read. My daughter and I love reading these books. Her three favorite things about this book are:

That you need to try and understand why someone might be mean.
That being mean back will never solve anything.
Be the best you, that you can be and leave others to make their own choices.

These books are best read in order as they tell a continuous story. But we have read a few out of order and they always stand up well as standalone stories. And we heartily recommend both this specific book and the series. And hopefully there will be more books available in the series soon.