Joshua T Bates Takes Charge

Remembering how a mean gang of bullies used to tease him for being held back in the third grade, Joshua sees the same boys teasing a new student and fears that helping will bring the attention back to him. Reprint.

Tommy Wilhelm and his gang of bullies have never let fifth-grader Joshua forget that he was held back in the third grade. Now Tommy has started picking on a dorky new kid and Joshua must choose between sticking up for the nerd and saving his own neck.

After finally being promoted to fourth grade in the middle of the year, Joshua is so worried about the bully who rules the fourth grade boys that he makes some unwise decisions.

Twelve-year-old Ellie Tremont is b-o-r-e-d, bored, and she wishes something, anything, would happen. So when 14-year-old Tommy Bowers moves in next door, with his lanky swagger and his troubled past, Ellie knows her summer is about to get interesting. When Tommy suggests they start a camp for the kids on their street under their elderly neighbors’(the Watsons’) porch, Ellie quickly agrees to that, and everything else Tommy suggests. And when Tommy gives her a diamond necklace that he says he bought, she’s suspicious, though smitten. But by the time her parents forbid her from seeing him, she’s given him her heart. Soon, though, Tommy goes too far and even Ellie isn’t sure what to make of him.

The third in a series of irresistibly charming, beautifully illustrated children's classics - the adventures of Detective Nosegoode and his talking dog, Cody. A famous picture is in danger of being stolen, the headquarters of the Circle of the Aficionados of Checkers has been robbed and an elusive pickpocket strikes at the celebrations to mark the hundredth anniversary of the founding of Lower Limewood. This small town seems to have a attracted quite a number of thieves - a good job they can count the brilliant Detective Nosegoode and his faithful Cody among their residents.

In the sequel to The Flunking of Joshua T. Bates, Joshua, now in the fifth grade, is caught between a gang of bullies and a short red-haired kid and must decide whether or not he should stick up for his classmate.

This easy chapter book picks up immediately after The Flunking of Joshua T. Bates and before the events in Joshua T. Bates Takes Charge. The youngster gets a mid-year promotion to fourth grade and then his problems really begin. His archenemy, Tommy Wilhem, is waiting for him and Joshua is determined to be cool and non-nerdy. Unfortunately, this leads him into unwise actions such as going into class with an unlit cigarette behind his ear and 'borrowing' his father's Swiss Army knife and taking it to school. The boy's insecurities are well drawn and right on target for the intended audience. His triumph over Tommy is...will be gratifying wish-fulfillment for similarly afflicted readers. Well written, with occasional, full-page, black-and-white drawings, this is a solid addition to the series.