by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Random House (Delacorte Press), 2010
review copy provided by the publisher
When we finished Clementine, Friend of the Week (my review here), our first read aloud of the year, I asked my class what kind of book they wanted to hear next. They wanted action, adventure, scary and longer than Clementine.
My pick? Emily's Fortune.
Action? Tree climbing, stagecoach rides, near-drowning...Check.
Adventure? Orphaned girl disguised as a boy running away from an evil uncle who wants her ten million dollar inheritance...Check.
Scary? "The man at the bar wore black boots up to the knee, brown britches, and a brown shirt. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to the elbows; his large arms bulged out of his sleeves, and on one of the huge arms was...a tiger tattoo." Well, probably not scary by ten year-old standards, but it will have to do.
Emily's Fortune is only 147 pages, so it won't qualify for longer than Clementine, but it takes a look at friendship and trust that will make a nice compare/contrast with Clementine, Friend of the Week. It will also give us more cliffhangers than one book should be allowed to have, as well as some extra-"juicy" words and phrases for our word wall:
"Who in flippin' flapjacks..."
"Where in tumblin' tarnation..."
"What in the hokie smokies..."
"How in the ding-dong dickens..."
I am now officially embarrassed that I've never asked my class what genre they wanted to read. I've offered them a vote on specific books, but I've never thought to ask about genre. Thanks for the great idea.
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