THE TERRIBLE TWO

THE TERRIBLE TWO by Jory John and Mac Barnett. Illustrated by Kevin Cornell

GREEN LIGHT with CAUTION

AGES: 4TH - 7TH GRADE

When your middle school age nephew offers you a book recommendation, you listen up and check it out. At least I did, and I have to say this was a very timely recommendation for me!

Miles Murphy has just moved to Yawnee Valley (Don't you love the name of this place? Score for the authors!), and he's not happy about it. Yawnee is known for its cow population, and Miles couldn't care less about cows. That's not the least of his problems. He's got to make his place in a new school, and he decides the best way to accomplish this is by using his best skill ever: pranking people. He pulls out his notebook cataloging his best pranks ever and begins working his way through his guaranteed results list. The problem is that every time Miles sets a prank up, someone else in the school alters it and steals the thunder. Miles has never dealt with competition before. Does he throw in the towel and call it quits? Absolutely not! It's time to up the pranks and find out who he's really dealing with.

I love that my nephew recommended this book to me on the tail of finishing Mac Barnett's nonfiction book on children's literature, Make Believe. I've read several of Barnett's picture books, but I think this may be my first chapter book by him, and it's interesting to see his thoughts and beliefs on children's literature in action. Don't expect The Terrible Two to bring deep meaning and philosophy to your child's life. This book is relatable to kids by focusing on tough experiences with peers and difficult school authorities. (In this case, the principal is out to get Miles from Day one.) Barnett definitely doesn't subscribe to the idea that books should be used for teaching moments all the time. Sometimes books should just be enjoyed for what they are.

This is Book One in the Terrible Two series, and readers should start with this one.

HEADS UP - Miles Murphy uses just about every possible way to prank people which does include lying. He has a quote he uses in a couple of places in the book, "I think sometimes it's OK to do something wrong if it helps you do something right." The interesting thing in this book is that Miles finds himself being blamed for a major prank against the principal that he didn't do and is punished for it. This results in creating the biggest prank ever.