Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade (edit title/settings)

Nothing’s Fair in the Fifth Grade is written by Barthe DeClemmons. It’s a about a fifth grade girl named Jennifer Sawyer. She’s a typical twelve year old, and semi popular in her class. One day her class gets a new student named Elsie Edwards. Well as you can tell by her name, cause really when is a pretty girl ever named Elsie, not only is she unattractive but she’s fat. Immediately the kids don’t like her just because she’s big. Or rather the book says she’s enormous! Kids can be mean though. Surprisingly when I was in the fifth grade I don’t think we had any over weight girls in our class. If they were a little chubby though, and come to think of it I had a friend that was, it really wasn’t a big deal.

So one day someone’s lunch money disappears. Then the next day someone else’s lunch money disappears. Elsie’s mom’s put her on a strict diet and she can only eat what’s in her lunch box. That still doesn’t stop her from sneaking and asking the other kids for food. The only one that really gives her food and is nice to her is a girl named Maryanne. She’s the nice one in the class. The money is disappearing while the rest of the class is in recess. So the teacher’s check and no one comes clean about the money. Hmm they must have not have done a very thorough search..

Jenny catches Elsie in the store one day buying candy. Dum Dum Dum. She figures out that Elsie is the one that stole the money, because her mom never gives her any money. Hated Elsie’s mom! She was so mean! If you’re a mom you’re suppose to love your kid even if they are over weight. I mean they might have a eating disorder. Then eventually as they get older they might slim down or stop eating so much, but you aren’t supposed to degrade them for it. So Elsie gets caught and they call a conference and she’s put on probation. She got caught stealing at the last school she was at.

The kids continue to make fun of Elsie, and pull mean tricks on her. The theft thing didn’t help. Jenny though has a change of heart and starts to really feel sorry for Elsie. So vows to be friends with her. Very noble. She hopes that the other kids *Sharon and Diane* will follow suit. She sees that Elsie is very good at math and always makes one hundreds on her papers. Quite the coincidence Jenny is having problems with fractions and barely passing math.

She asks her mom and dad could Elsie tutor her after school. That way she could pay back the kids who she ripped off. Her mother agrees. Jenny’s grades start making immediate improvement. Soon Elsie is tutoring Sharon and Diane as well as Jenny.
They all start to accept her a little more. They see how bad a mother Elsie has when they go over her house and Jenny’s little brother Kenny and Elsie’s little sister tear up the kitchen and before they can clean it up good her mom walks in and blames Elsie.

Seems like Elsie can’t get a break. One day their hanging out and get bored and decide to go to a carnival in town. Instead of walking they decide to hitch a ride. This guy with a truck tells them to get in and on the way to where he’s going he’ll drop them off at the carnival. But then the scary part is he doesn’t stop he keeps going. When I was reading this I had a bad feeling he was surely gonna take them somewhere and try to child molest them or something. But before it gets to that they all decide to jump off the truck when they see it’s getting farther and farther away from anything they recognize. All except Elsie’s little sister who is worried about her new purse. So she’s now stuck on the back of the truck and the truck is getting farther away. They end up at a bar in town and the owner *I think* calls the police.

The truck is tracked down and Elsie’s sister is safe. All that’s said about the man is that he was gonna stop and he didn’t even notice the kids jump out until after he’d come to a light. Okay then why didn’t he stop immediately and turn around? He claimed he was going to come back after he made his stop. Uh hunh? Who else read this and didn’t quite by this excuse? But of course Elsie gets blamed heavily. Even though it was Diane’s idea to hitch hike. Still one more incident and she’s outta there. The third strike comes when this guy Jack is calling her names, and she swings a bat *there playing softball that day* and hits him in the chin.

The girls beg him not to tell. I think Sharon insults him though and calls him Red. Might I add that Jack DESERVES fully to be hit somewhere for being so unpleasant throughout the whole book But one good thing about Jack is he isn’t a snitch. The principal decides that Elsie can come back next year. At the end o the book Jenny vows to be a better person and is t thankful thinking about Elsie’s mom how lucky she is to have her family. She vows never to take them for granted again. I think their’s a book after this called Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You.

In summery I give this book seven stars. It taught a good lesson about being judgmental. Just because Elsie was a big girl it didn’t mean that she should be any less appreciated as a person because of her weight. When you think about it today thick is definitely in. Actresses like Monique have upgraded the prejudices that say that you have to be a six 6 in order to be beautiful! Beauty truly comes in all shapes and sizes but I think this book was written a little before the times when plus sizes were looked at as less than undesirable. Although I’ve never been big like Elsie and had to face prejudices at school I have dealt with a situation for years that has made me different from others. Once upon a time I myself had a weight problem, but it was just the opposite. I was losing weight because of a disease called gastro. Just like Elsie’s mom I use to feel like my mom would make unnecessary comments about how skinny I was getting and how I looked in certain clothes. In actuality it wasn’t even my fault. I had a problem, just like Elsie had a depression problem. So it made me a little mad when I read about how Elsie’s biggest problem came from not the kids at school but in her own home. Parents aren’t suppose to treat to degrade there kids because of how big or small they are. Any though I’m not a parent I’d love my kid regardless if he or she was big as an elephant or small as an ant. If they were unhappy then I’d try to help them but I wouldn’t contribute to them feeling in any way self conscious about themselves. I think this is not only a book for kids but for parents as well to read. The book ended with a very positive message and that is never judge a book by its cover. I don’t have any criticisms of the book I think it would be a good book to add to a class list to emphasize the importance of accepting people as they are. A very good read!