From Publishers Weekly
Haddix's (Just Ella; Running Out of Time) first novel for the Ready-for-Chapters series features a likable narrator adjusting to a new neighborhood and value system. Janie's secretary mother knits sweaters (personalized with children's names) in her spare time to sell at a fancy store and uses the extra income to fund a move from the city to the suburbs. There, third-grader Janie can attend a better public school, but all the children dress better than she does. Soon after Janie and her parents relocate, the store's owner returns all the sweaters, announcing that he has found a cheaper source. With no money for the new wardrobe her mother had promised her, Janie begins wearing the handknit sweaters to school, explaining that the embroidered monikers are her middle names. In a tidy conclusion, the girl's modeling of the sweaters inspires her mother to sell them on her own and Janie finally abandons her resistance to the kind, lonely classmate who has tried to become her friend. Despite a few overwritten passages (e.g., "I remembered how she'd knitted and knitted and knitted, early in the morning and late at night, on the bus and at home, every second she could for a solid year. Just for me. Because she loved me"), readers will likely warm up to this appealing novel's perceptive, independent-minded title character. Ages 7-10.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Gr 2-4-Janie and her parents have been living in strapped financial circumstances since her father suffered a back injury rendering him unable to work. After observing the dilapidated state of her daughter's school, her mother decides to sell the knitwear she creates to supplement her salary and moves the family to a better school district. Though the third grader is successful academically, she is keenly aware that her classmates are better dressed than she is and she feels as if she doesn't fit in. When her mother loses her knitwear consignment position, Janie reluctantly accepts a hand-me-down coat from a classmate. She also begins wearing the specialty sweaters that were returned, hoping to arouse interest and maybe attract clientele for her mother. Since each sweater has a different moniker, the students assume that Janie has many middle names. All ends well when Mrs. Sams makes plans to sell her creations herself and Janie, no longer a loner, makes a best friend. Charcoal illustrations are scattered throughout this easy-to-read chapter book. A warmhearted tale of a self-possessed girl who is determined to make life better for her parents.
Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
