Boys Rock! (Boy/Girl Battle) [Paperback]

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: Boy/Girl Battle

Wally Hatford dreams of long lazy days far away from school and Caroline Malloy. But Wally, the best speller among the Hatford brothers, gets roped into helping them with a summer newspaper project that will earn the twins school credit.
What does that get Wally? When he hears scratching noises coming from Oldakers’ bookstore cellar, Mr. Oldaker trusts him to keep a secret that could turn into a scoop for their newspaper. Wally worries that the secret may be too scary to keep to himself.
What’s worse, the Malloy girls have horned in on the newspaper. If there’s one person Wally won’t spill his secret to, it’s nutty Caroline Malloy. No matter what it is!


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-5–It's summer and while Wally Hatford would rather sit around and watch a spider weave its web, he agrees to help his brothers. If Jake and Josh can create a historical town newspaper, they will get credit for reading three books on their summer list. As a gesture of good will, since they are 99 percent certain that the Malloy sisters will be returning to Ohio in the fall, they ask the girls to join them. When Eddie declares herself editor-in-chief, the one-upmanship that's a trademark of this series starts. All of the kids have a job on the paper; Wally and Peter are in charge of distribution, Beth investigates a haunted house, the twins write historical sports stories, and Caroline interviews citizens about their ancestors. When Wally asks the owner of Oldakers' Bookstore if he can display copies of the Hatford Herald, he hears a strange noise coming from its basement. Mr. Oldaker promises him a scoop for the paper if he can keep the information a secret. When mistakes are printed in the paper, the girls learn a valuable lesson about fact-checking, and they also learn that the boys will strike if they don't have their own way. Although the characters are mostly one-dimensional, the story has its funny moments. Fans of the series will eat it up.–Tina Zubak, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, PA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-6. Naylor's popular Girls against the Boys series continues, with more of the ongoing, ultimately good-natured feud between the four Hatford brothers and their neighbors, the three Malloy sisters. When the oldest Hatford boys start a newspaper for a summer-school assignment, they need help--and they approach the Malloys. Unfortunately, the Malloys had the same idea, and doing the paper together doesn't go smoothly. Meanwhile, almost-fifth-grader Wally stumbles on a spooky mystery at the local bookstore--a potentially great news scoop--and Caroline Malloy embraces her inner actress through aura-strengthening exercises and discovers the importance of fact-checking. Summer and rivalry continue, bringing rewards from teamwork, a surprising historical find, and one last prank that leaves plenty of room for another title. Wally and Caroline prove to be lively narrators, and their entertaining takes on things will satisfy series fans and recruit new readers, who will find helpful summaries of previous titles at the end of the book. Shelle Rosenfeld
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Yearling (July 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440419905
• ISBN-13: 978-0440419907
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.4 x 7.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #489,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I guess I've been writing for about as long as I can remember. Telling stories, anyway, if not writing them down. I had my first short story published when I was sixteen, and wrote stories to help put myself through college, planning to become a clinical psychologist. By the time I graduated with a BA degree, however, I decided that writing was really my first love, so I gave up plans for graduate school and began writing full time.

I'm not happy unless I spend some time writing every day. It's as though pressure builds up inside me, and writing even a little helps to release it. On a hard-writing day, I write about six hours. Tending to other writing business, answering mail, and just thinking about a book takes another four hours. I spend from three months to a year on a children's book, depending on how well I know the characters before I begin and how much research I need to do. A novel for adults, because it's longer, takes a year or more. When my work is going well, I wake early in the mornings, hoping it's time to get up. When the writing is hard and the words are flat, I'm not very pleasant to be around.

Getting an idea for a book is the easy part. Keeping other ideas away while I'm working on one story is what's difficult. My books are based on things that have happened to me, things I have heard or read about, all mixed up with imaginings. The best part about writing is the moment a character comes alive on paper, or when a place that existed only in my head becomes real. There are no bands playing at this moment, no audience applauding--a very solitary time, actually--but it's what I like most. I've now had more than 120 books published, and about 2000 short stories, articles and poems.

I live in Bethesda, Maryland, with my husband, Rex, a speech pathologist, who's the first person to read my manuscripts when they're finished. Our sons, Jeff and Michael, are grown now, but along with their wives and children, we often enjoy vacations together in the mountains or at the ocean. When I'm not writing, I like to hike, swim, play the piano and attend the theater.

I'm lucky to have my family, because they have contributed a great deal to my books. But I'm also lucky to have the troop of noisy, chattering characters who travel with me inside my head. As long as they are poking, prodding, demanding a place in a book, I have things to do and stories to tell.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Amid scraps and funny mishaps the Hatford boys and Malloy girls put together their own paper, January 14, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boys Rock! (Boy/Girl Battle) (Hardcover)

It's summer vacation and Wally dreams of days away from school and his neighbor nemesis Caroline - but he gets roped into helping his brothers on a summer newspaper project which involves him with both Caroline and a mystery. Amid scraps and funny mishaps the Hatford boys and Malloy girls put together their own paper and even work on their own big scoop in yet another funny 'Girls Against the Boys' series addition by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Boys Rock!, which requires no prior familiarity to prove fun.

5.0 out of 5 stars Amid scraps and funny mishaps the Hatford boys and Malloy girls put together their own paper, January 14, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boys Rock! (Boy/Girl Battle) (Hardcover)

It's summer vacation and Wally dreams of days away from school and his neighbor nemesis Caroline - but he gets roped into helping his brothers on a summer newspaper project which involves him with both Caroline and a mystery. Amid scraps and funny mishaps the Hatford boys and Malloy girls put together their own paper and even work on their own big scoop in yet another funny 'Girls Against the Boys' series addition by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Boys Rock!, which requires no prior familiarity to prove fun.