How to Fight a Girl

Bibliographic information: 

Rockwell, Thomas.  How to Fight a Girl.  Dell Yearling Book, 1987,  p. 112.

Brief plot description:

What happened to the How to Eat Fried Worms gang?  At the beginning of the book we see Alan, Billy, and Joe.  Alan really wants Billy’s trail bike because he is jealous, and they begin to fight over it until Billy’s mom stops them.  Billy must help around the house and can’t ride the book for four days.  Alan and Joe try to come up with a plot to get Billy back for the worms with the help of Rena.  Rena and Amy tell Joe and Alan that they were unable to trick Billy.  Billy needs to find someone to be on his side.  Billy takes Amy out to ride his bike, after she comes over to talk to him, and she gets dirty but Billy finds that she looks better than she did at the beginning.  Rena sees her and calls her a traitor.  What will happen between these two groups?

Brief review:

I really like this story because it describes the relationships between boys and girls during adolescents.  I think that this book could be used for fourth through sixth grade.  It could be used for discussing the differences between boys and girls.  I think that the main idea is that friends have problems some times, but that they can work them out.  That could be another way of using the book when a group of friends are not getting along after a fight.  The book is really good and a great ending to How to Eat Fried Worms.  There are some illustrations in the book and they are all in black and white.  The illustrations aren’t finely detailed. 

Genre label:

Modern Fiction

Reading level/interest level:

4^th-6^th grade

Character names:

Alan

Billy

Joe

Amy Miller

Rena- Joe’s sister

Emily

Similar materials in style content, theme or characters:

How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell

How to Get Fabulously Rich by Thomas Rockwell

The Boxcar Children by Gertude Chandler Warner

Snail Mail No More by Paula Danzinger and Ann M. Martin