Justin Case: School, Drool, and other Daily Disasters by Rachel Vail 246 pages

Rachel Vail has written several memorable books for middle school girls; here is one for the guys. It is fresh, funny and should be enjoyed by pre- Wimpy Kid lovers. This is the saga of Justin's third grade -- from the first to the last day. It starts bad; he gets the "wrong" teacher; all his friends have the other, fun teacher.But the biggest crisis -- and there are a lot is not that his parents are splitting up, and he never gets to see his dad, but his favorite stuffed animal has gone AWOL. He has a realistic relationship with his only sister. He wants to step out of his shell; it is just SO hard. He has so many fears -- especially the new dog that his mom got for him. It seems like just about everyone misunderstand anything he does. Some of the journal days are quite brief and black and white illustrations dot the text make it very friendly to third grade readers. Highly recommended.