Tired of being pushed around by the class bully, Earl and two friends devise the perfect revenge.
Dear God, Help!!! Love, Earl
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Kirkus Reviews
Earl brings his skewed self-esteem and scathingly funny lowdown to this continuing saga of three oddball friends--Earl, obsessively honest Rosie Swanson, and Max, master of the coined word (``The guy's pewage, Earl''). Each week, fist-wielding bully Eddie extorts money from timid, overweight Earl, whose impending poverty drives the friends to extremes. Rosie and Max convince Eddie that he has, in a recent attack, actually killed Earl. Posed photos and cemetery shots buoy their case, but it's Earl's mother who nails down the plot with some well-timed (if innocent) remarks. Eddie cries and is told the truth, but a little more extortion is in order: the threesome won't tell about Eddie's tears if he promises to pick Earl and Max first for teams in gym class. With loads of comic moments, Park's book will crack readers up with its morbidly funny plans and guffaw-inducing repartee. (Fiction. 8-10) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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More About the Author
I grew up in Mt. Holly, New Jersey. It was a small town surrounded by farmland . . . the kind of town where you greet people by name on Main Street. It was only an hour's drive to the ocean. So every summer we spent family vacations on Long Beach Island. My brother and I would ride the waves during the day and play miniature golf at night. It's the kind of idyllic memory that stays in your head long after you've grown up and moved away.
After graduating from high school and spending two years at Rider University, I transferred to the University of Alabama where I met my husband, Richard. Eventually his job brought him to Arizona. We both fell in love with the desert and wanted to stay here forever. Still, during the heat of the Arizona summers, those ocean memories would come rushing back. So-after years of sweaty summers-my husband and I finally built a house on Long Beach Island, the same island where my brother and I rode the waves as kids. In the story business, that's called "coming full circle." These days, Richard and I divide our time between the desert and the ocean. In the words of Junie B. Jones, I'm a lucky duck.
Q. What inspired you to start writing?
In my case, it was sort of "reverse" inspiration. I got a degree in secondary education. My plan was to teach high school history and political science. But, because of a scheduling problem my senior year, I ended up doing my student teaching in the seventh grade. The word disaster doesn't really cover this one. I'll spare you the details. But as I ran screaming from the school building every day, I knew that I would never be a teacher. My husband and I married after graduation, and started a family. A few years later, when I was ready to go to work, I was still haunted by the memories of student teaching. So I was "inspired" to try my hand at writing instead.
Q. How did you go about getting published?
The first children's novel I wrote was Operation: Dump the Chump. As soon as it was finished, I bought a copy of Writer's Market, found some addresses, and started sending it off to publishers who were accepting unsolicited manuscripts. It was rejected three times. All three rejections managed to work in the classic industry one-liner, "It isn't right for our list."
The fourth time I sent it to Alfred Knopf, Inc. A few weeks later, they called and said it was exactly right for their list. I felt like I'd hit the lottery.
Q: You've written middle-grade novels, early chapter books, and picture books. Which do you like writing best?
I can't really say which I like best. But after all the Junie B. books I've written, those certainly come the easiest. The middle-grade novels are more of a challenge. But in some ways, that makes them more rewarding. The last two I've written (Mick Harte Was Here and The Graduation of Jake Moon) were both about very sensitive topics, so it took a long time to get them exactly right. But I think those two books have made me the most proud.
Q. Tell us about your most recent picture book.
It's called, MA! There's Nothing to Do Here! It's about a baby in utero who is bored out of his mind. The idea for it was born (so to speak) when my daughter-in-law, Renee, invited me to my first grandson's ultrasound. Although I had never had an ultrasound myself, I'd seen pictures of other babies in utero. But I wasn't prepared for how amazing it would be to see my own little grandbaby on that screen. I felt like I was watching the Discovery Channel.
Q. How much did you continue to think about the baby after seeing the ultrasound? How did this develop into the idea for the book?
A. On the way out of the doctor's office, I remember thinking, Okay, so now we're all going back to our busy lives. But the baby is still in there just floating around. Except for an occasional kick or hiccup, he's got absolutely nothing to do.
A few months later-when I was getting ready to give Renee a baby shower-I wrote this poem, framed it, and gave it to her as a shower gift.
Q. Of the characters you've created, who is your favorite?
A. This would be a bit like picking a favorite child. I don't have a single favorite character, but again, I lived with the characters Mick and Phoebe Harte and Jake and Skelly Moon for a very long time. So those four are the most dear to me.
The characters I've had the most fun with have been the little ones. Little kids are so free to say whatever is on their minds. They aren't silenced by peer pressure and the notion that they have to sound cool. Molly Vera Thompson in The Kid in the Red Jacket is six, and Thomas Russo in My Mother Got Married and Other Disasters is five. They both were such fun to write about that they led to the creation of Junie B. Jones.
Q. Is Junie B. modeled after you as a child? Did you ever do any of the things that Junie B. does?
A. I was sent to "Principal" in first grade for talking. There were lots of notes sent home that year, as well. My father was on the Board of Education. Not good.
Q. There's been some criticism of the Junie-speak in the series. How do you answer concerns that Junie's grammar is not good for young readers?
A. Honestly, most of the grown-ups I hear from are writing to tell me that Junie B. Jones got their reluctant readers to read. I have drawers full of letters from parents and teachers that are so meaningful to me, I can't bear to part with them. These are adults who understand that fictional literature plays a whole different role in children's lives than a book of grammar or a basic reader.
That having been said, there are always going to be a handful of people who denigrate books that speak in a voice other than their own. I've stopped trying to explain the concept of literature to people like that. Wasted time better spent.
8. What makes you laugh?
My sense of humor is a little bit off-center, I think. In the movies, I usually laugh at parts that no one else seems to think are funny. Then there are movies like Young Frankenstein where I laugh from the opening scene straight through to the end.
Lots of other things make me laugh, as well. My husband and sons make me laugh. My dog. My grandsons. Friends. The absurdities of life. My lopsided cakes. The list goes on . . .
What advice do you have for teachers that are aspiring writers? For kids?
There's nothing revolutionary in my advice, I'm afraid. It's the same old stuff. Write as much and as often as you can. Try different genres to find your niche. Then rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. And-above all-be your own worst critic.
After graduating from high school and spending two years at Rider University, I transferred to the University of Alabama where I met my husband, Richard. Eventually his job brought him to Arizona. We both fell in love with the desert and wanted to stay here forever. Still, during the heat of the Arizona summers, those ocean memories would come rushing back. So-after years of sweaty summers-my husband and I finally built a house on Long Beach Island, the same island where my brother and I rode the waves as kids. In the story business, that's called "coming full circle." These days, Richard and I divide our time between the desert and the ocean. In the words of Junie B. Jones, I'm a lucky duck.
Q. What inspired you to start writing?
In my case, it was sort of "reverse" inspiration. I got a degree in secondary education. My plan was to teach high school history and political science. But, because of a scheduling problem my senior year, I ended up doing my student teaching in the seventh grade. The word disaster doesn't really cover this one. I'll spare you the details. But as I ran screaming from the school building every day, I knew that I would never be a teacher. My husband and I married after graduation, and started a family. A few years later, when I was ready to go to work, I was still haunted by the memories of student teaching. So I was "inspired" to try my hand at writing instead.
Q. How did you go about getting published?
The first children's novel I wrote was Operation: Dump the Chump. As soon as it was finished, I bought a copy of Writer's Market, found some addresses, and started sending it off to publishers who were accepting unsolicited manuscripts. It was rejected three times. All three rejections managed to work in the classic industry one-liner, "It isn't right for our list."
The fourth time I sent it to Alfred Knopf, Inc. A few weeks later, they called and said it was exactly right for their list. I felt like I'd hit the lottery.
Q: You've written middle-grade novels, early chapter books, and picture books. Which do you like writing best?
I can't really say which I like best. But after all the Junie B. books I've written, those certainly come the easiest. The middle-grade novels are more of a challenge. But in some ways, that makes them more rewarding. The last two I've written (Mick Harte Was Here and The Graduation of Jake Moon) were both about very sensitive topics, so it took a long time to get them exactly right. But I think those two books have made me the most proud.
Q. Tell us about your most recent picture book.
It's called, MA! There's Nothing to Do Here! It's about a baby in utero who is bored out of his mind. The idea for it was born (so to speak) when my daughter-in-law, Renee, invited me to my first grandson's ultrasound. Although I had never had an ultrasound myself, I'd seen pictures of other babies in utero. But I wasn't prepared for how amazing it would be to see my own little grandbaby on that screen. I felt like I was watching the Discovery Channel.
Q. How much did you continue to think about the baby after seeing the ultrasound? How did this develop into the idea for the book?
A. On the way out of the doctor's office, I remember thinking, Okay, so now we're all going back to our busy lives. But the baby is still in there just floating around. Except for an occasional kick or hiccup, he's got absolutely nothing to do.
A few months later-when I was getting ready to give Renee a baby shower-I wrote this poem, framed it, and gave it to her as a shower gift.
Q. Of the characters you've created, who is your favorite?
A. This would be a bit like picking a favorite child. I don't have a single favorite character, but again, I lived with the characters Mick and Phoebe Harte and Jake and Skelly Moon for a very long time. So those four are the most dear to me.
The characters I've had the most fun with have been the little ones. Little kids are so free to say whatever is on their minds. They aren't silenced by peer pressure and the notion that they have to sound cool. Molly Vera Thompson in The Kid in the Red Jacket is six, and Thomas Russo in My Mother Got Married and Other Disasters is five. They both were such fun to write about that they led to the creation of Junie B. Jones.
Q. Is Junie B. modeled after you as a child? Did you ever do any of the things that Junie B. does?
A. I was sent to "Principal" in first grade for talking. There were lots of notes sent home that year, as well. My father was on the Board of Education. Not good.
Q. There's been some criticism of the Junie-speak in the series. How do you answer concerns that Junie's grammar is not good for young readers?
A. Honestly, most of the grown-ups I hear from are writing to tell me that Junie B. Jones got their reluctant readers to read. I have drawers full of letters from parents and teachers that are so meaningful to me, I can't bear to part with them. These are adults who understand that fictional literature plays a whole different role in children's lives than a book of grammar or a basic reader.
That having been said, there are always going to be a handful of people who denigrate books that speak in a voice other than their own. I've stopped trying to explain the concept of literature to people like that. Wasted time better spent.
8. What makes you laugh?
My sense of humor is a little bit off-center, I think. In the movies, I usually laugh at parts that no one else seems to think are funny. Then there are movies like Young Frankenstein where I laugh from the opening scene straight through to the end.
Lots of other things make me laugh, as well. My husband and sons make me laugh. My dog. My grandsons. Friends. The absurdities of life. My lopsided cakes. The list goes on . . .
What advice do you have for teachers that are aspiring writers? For kids?
There's nothing revolutionary in my advice, I'm afraid. It's the same old stuff. Write as much and as often as you can. Try different genres to find your niche. Then rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. And-above all-be your own worst critic.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not my favorite but still all right,
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Dear God, Help!!! Love, Earl (Geek Chronicles) (No. 3) (Paperback)
The book Dear God, Help!!! Love, Earl by Barbara Park, is about Earl Wilber, a chubby nerdy kid who gets bullied by a kid named Eddie McFee. Earl friends, Rosie and Maxie, help Earl to get revenge on McFee.I think this book is all right but not great. I liked the book because the ending was clever and comical. However, most of the book was corny. For example, Earl and his friends Maxie and Rosie were calling each other `kaka'. I think this joke was idiotic. I would recommend this book to people who like corny humor. I think this book is good for upper elementary students to middle school students.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Stories for Children Magazine 2 star review,
By Virginia S. Grenier "Children's Author & Stor... (Ivins, Utah USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Dear God, Help!!! Love, Earl (Geek Chronicles) (No. 3) (Paperback)
Earl Wilbur is an overweight, asthmatic, middle-school aged kid (fifth grade?) who lives with his mom (his dad, who is English, left the family to return to England). Many of the other kids tease him, but a bullying fellow class-mate, Eddie McFee, has been taunting him and even beating him up until one day Earl pays Eddie a dollar not to hurt him, and now Eddie demands a dollar each week to leave Earl alone. Then, Earl's money runs out, so he and his two best friends, Maxie Zuckerman and Rosie Swanson, hatch a plan to get back and Eddie and stop him from bullying Earl. But will it work?Whenever I see a book from a secular publisher with the word "God" in the title, I am immediately a little suspicious, and this book did absolutely nothing to allay my suspicions. Oh, Earl does pray occasionally, but his prayers are basically just the childish kind of "bargaining with God" ("please make me a sick so that I don't have to go to P. E. class tomorrow") that many people mistake for genuine prayer. Parents will want to know that the book is filled with euphemisms (geez, darn, heck) and even "O my God" as an exclamation, and I am increasingly frustrated with the ubiquitous use of "OMG" in our society. Such language shows an author's poverty of vocabulary in trying to get across ideas. Yet, even worse is that Maxie comes out with the "d" word. True, it is only once, but I have trouble recommending books where children use curse words seemingly as a matter of course. With topics such as childhood obesity and bullying, there could have been a good story here, but the author had to ruin it with bad language and with a zany, almost racy style of writing which I suppose was thought to make it more "relevant" and "realistic" to today's children, whose attention span and literacy level have been decimated by decades of watching television. This book does not so much deal with finding an actual solution to the problem of bullying as with the desire simply to get revenge on Eddie. In fact, rather than handling the situation in a constructive way, it almost seems to me to be making fun of the whole thing., Another thing that I did not like about this book is that adults are generally made to look like incompetent morons. However, when I learned that the author also created the "Junie B. Jones" series, I guess that I should not have been surprised. Other people may like the "Junie B. Jones" books, but the ones that I read I found to be dreadful. Some may decide that Dear God, Help!!! Love, Earl, which was originally published in 1993 , "is a good choice for starting conversations with students about bullying in school and how children should or should not deal with the situations they find themselves in," but we shall not be reading it at our house. It is one of the "Geek Series Chronicles" that also include Maxie, Rose, and Earl: Partners in Grime, and Rosie Swanson: Fourth-Grade Geek for President, and I have to admit that I have no desire to read them either.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I recommend it, but not my favorite.,
By
This review is from: Dear God, Help!!! Love, Earl (Geek Chronicles) (No. 3) (Paperback)
I really enjoy Barbara Park and her lovable characters. This is the first "Geek Chronicles" book I've read and, while I would recommend it, I didn't enjoy it as much as others of Park's works. Earl and his friends are very lovable and, of course, laughs abound. I simply have huge expectations when it comes to Barbara Park. I felt the violence was realistic but a bit drawn out and, frankly, it disturbed me. I love that these characters solve their own problems in an ingenious way and work together as their plans go awry. I will be reading more Geek Chronicles as I love Earl and his friends and I'm interested to see what else they do.
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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The Plan, Earl Wilber, Nurse Klonski, Ruby Doober, Salvation Army, Coach Rah, Maxie Zuckerman, Happy Family Pizza Palace, Rosie Swanson, Miss Doober New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Surprise Me!
nasty note Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Plan, Earl Wilber, Nurse Klonski, Ruby Doober, Salvation Army, Coach Rah, Maxie Zuckerman, Happy Family Pizza Palace, Rosie Swanson, Miss Doober New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 3
books:
- Junie B. Jones Has A Peep In Her Pocket (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Junie B. Jones (Pb)) by Barbara Park in Back Matter
- The Kid in the Red Jacket by Barbara Park in Back Matter
- Junie B. Jones: Loves Handsome Warren; Junie B. Jones: Has a Monster Under Her Bed: Junie B. Jones #7 and #8 by Lana Quintal in Back Matter
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