Amber Brown is Not a Crayon
Written by Paula Danziger
Illustrated by Tony Ross
Reviewed by Katie S. (age 10)
This book is the story of a friendship between two third-graders. Amber Brown and Justin Daniels. They are very funny because Amber is messy and Justin is very neat. They do fun things together and have many special "rules" in their world. Can you believe that they save their gum?
Most of this story takes place in school in Mr. Cohen's class. Both Amber and Justin are in the same class and even get to sit next to each other. They always help each other, mostly Justin helping Amber with her math, especially fractions. In Mr. Cohen's class, they get to take an imaginary trip to China.
My favorite part of the book is when the class is having lunch in China. The parents volunteered and bought the class Chinese food to eat for lunch...including chopsticks. Amber Brown just could not get the hang of using two chopsticks, so instead, she just used one to "spear" her food and eat it. After Amber and Justin were finished with their lunch, they used their chopsticks to pretend to fence together.
I loved reading this book because it was a funny story about two friends. I think this is a story for girls of all ages because the friendship between Amber and Justin just makes you feel happy inside your heart.