Babymouse #5: Heartbreaker (Paperback)

~ (Author), Matt Holm (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

AHHH, VALENTINE'S DAY! Babymouse loves Valentines Day! A day for pink hearts! Flowers! Candy! School dances and romance . . . sweet
romance! WAIT! Romance? Ew! And what's this about a school dance? Does that mean Babymouse needs a date? Uh-oh! Looks like this
Valentine's Day may turn into a Valentine's dud! Will Babymouse go to the school dance? Will she get any Valentines? Will she find true love? Find out in . . . Babymouse: Heartbreaker!

About the Author

Brother-and-sister team, Matthew Holm and Jennifer L. Holm have had their share of school dance dramas. Today Jennifer Holm is the author of several highly acclaimed novels, including Penny from Heaven and the Newbery Honor-winning Our Only May Amelia . Matthew Holm is a graphic designer and freelance writer. They are both happily married and avoid dancing at all costs. Matthew and Jennifer live in Fallston, Maryland, and Hudson, New York, respectively.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (December 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375837981
• ISBN-13: 978-0375837982
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #39,163 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious!, January 14, 2008

By	Shasha - See all my reviews

I bought this for my daughter. She does not like to read but she loves to read the BabyMouse books. We have #1-4 and they were all very entertaining. BabyMouse is at her funniest when she daydreams. Great books for the entire family!

5.0 out of 5 stars Nobody Puts Babymouse In the Corner, February 20, 2007

By	E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Here is a typical day in my library. I set out four or five copies of the newest "Babymouse" series around 10:00 a.m. on the graphic novel shelf. Around 11:00 a.m. a patron of the girl-like persuasion will ask if we have any copies of "Babymouse" in. With falsely swelled head I will lead the patron to the place I last put the series, only to find every single last stinking copy is gone gone goneski. I'm trying to give you some kind of an idea of just how popular this series has proved to be. Whether your patron is a newbie to the series and wants, "Babymouse: Queen of the World", or has read every last single installment in the series up to "Babymouse: Rock Star", I can assure you that if you purchase, "Babymouse: Heartbreaker", you're simply setting yourself up to loose your copy to a fanatic fan pronto. Are you a librarian desperately in need of higher use stats? Meet the solution to all your woes. In this particular book in the series we see our plucky heroine doing what she does best. Eating cupcakes (though not as many as she might have), thinking about boys in an off-hand fashion, and dreaming up impossible fabulous dreams.

It's Babymouse's faaaavorite holiday of all time. Can you guess what it is? Here's a hint: It involves pink. That's right. Valentine's Day is nigh and Babymouse has a lot on her mind. For one thing, it seems that her elementary school is having a dance and trusty standby Wilson is going with someone else. Suddenly Babymouse needs a date, but nobody is coming to mind. Either everyone's already taken or they're not interested in going. Even the creature that lives in her locker is giving her grief on the subject. In the end, Babymouse decides to go to the ball all by herself. Fortunately for her, there's somebody there who thinks she's absolutely fabulous. Someone she may have overlooked (or vice-versa).

I think part of the reason I love the "Babymouse" books as much as I do is that they've converted me to pink. I used to think that pink was a girly color. In the 1980s I was all about the hot pink (preferably paired with electric blue or just black) and even had a Pogo Ball in that color. Then I got older and eschewed my earlier love of the shade. Now the team of Holm & Holm have come up with a way of making me love pink all over again. And unlike other children's books of limited palettes (like the "Olivia" books, for one), at no point does Matthew Holm betray me and introduce another color like, oh say, electric blue. There's also the fact that when it comes to the art, "Babymouse" books are misleadingly simple. They look easy enough. But as you can see by "Heartbreaker", there's a fabulous moment when Babymouse has a crises of confidence and the page is just of her curled up from a distance with the only light a pinkish hue crosshatched through her bedroom window. It's pink noir at its finest.

Why You Should Buy This Book: In one of her dream sequences, Babymouse is dancing with Duckie on a dance floor. Duckie, at the same time, is saying (and I am not making this up), "Nobody puts Babymouse in the corner". Come ON, people! How can you resist that? And did I mention the peculiar fact that in her fantasies Babymouse sometimes ends up as a guy? When she decides to go to the dance by herself she suddenly envisions a "Gone With the Wind"-type situation in which one character is Scarlett O'Hara and Babymouse is, oddly enough, Rhett. I'd say that raises the bar on original characterizations, wouldn't you?

As with the other "Babymouse" books, there are the old standbys. Cupcakes. A snarky narrator who discusses various situations with our heroine. Dream sequences ah-plenty. And, of course, the locker creature who gets quite a lot of page time in this book. In the end it doesn't matter if this is the first Babymouse book a kid reads or the last. It'll definitely whet their whistle for future installments. Babymouse forever!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Babymouse Rocks!!, February 13, 2007

By	Kelly Herold "Big A little a" (Smalltown, Midwest) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Babymouse: Heartbreaker" is No. 5 in the rockin' Babymouse series.

Young Babymouse is at it again--daydreaming, struggling with her locker, and trying to fit in with her peers at school.

This time, however, in the fifth installment of the Babymouse series, the Holms have thrown the worst of school indignities--the school dance--Babymouse's way.

A school dance leads to plenty of good daydreaming. Cinderella, handsome princes, makeovers, spectacular feats on the dance floor. It also leads to plenty of real life heartbreak when a "Glamourmouse" makeover fails and no one asks Babymouse to the dance.

Now what I really love about the Babymouse series is that Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm don't reach for the easy solutions. And, they don't pander to their audience by choosing romantic, cliched endings. Instead, an off-panel voice suggests to Babymouse that she might ask someone to the dance. And she gives it a go. And FAILS, as one might fail in real life. Then, an off-panel voice suggests she attend the dance by herself. Babymouse scratches her head and says, "Myself? I can do that?" Yes, she can and does. You go, girl! (Or, er, mouse.)

My favorite parts of the Babymouse books are always those set in school. In this Valentine's Day offering, we're told "School was not a very romantic place" and Matthew Holm's characteristic pink and black panels show glum-looking "children" getting off the bus, hands on backpack straps. Indeed. At least there's Babymouse to brighten the day. Every school library should have multiple sets.