Trouble with Girls

Deborah Dowson is a Canadian children’s librarian living in Powell,
Ohio.

Halloween in Hope Springs should be a lot of fun, but it is a difficult
time for Janice and Jeff who face a series of unhappy events and a lot
of teasing from their classmates.

In Stinky, Janice is trying to adjust to her parents’ separation. She
has taken on a new name (Greer) and a controlling, bossy attitude. She
wants everything to be perfect. But instead, she is doing poorly in
math, she breaks her ankle, she gets sprayed by a skunk, she is betrayed
by her friends, and her juice bottle ferments and explodes in her
backpack. Worst of all, her plan to reunite her parents is unsuccessful.
The only thing Janice can do is to accept that even though things are
not perfect, they are going to be

okay.

In Trouble with Girls, Jeff is tormented by the Evil Girl Group, whom
he refers to as the Rotten EGGs. His mom advises him to take it as a
compliment, and his dad tells him to avoid them, but the teasing turns
into bullying, and then into a violent attack. The best advice comes
from the “eccentric” bus driver who dresses up in women’s clothes
when he is at home. He says, “Imagining’s OK, as long as you don’t
hurt anybody—works for me.” The girls finally get a reprimand for
their behavior, and Jeff manages to release his anger in a productive
way: he creates a comic strip in which the girls are glued to rockets
and blasted into outer space.

The Kids from Monkey Mountain series brings a comic perspective to the
everyday stresses and challenges that kids have to face. The author has
a talent for creating physical comedy and the kind of disgusting humor
that kids find so appealing (the frozen rat in the stew, for example).
Yet, underneath the hilarity are some good lessons about getting along
with others. Recommended with reservations about age appropriateness.