When a teacher leaves a blank book in the Writer's Corner for her students tofind, an epic battle ensues as they follow her instructions to "write in thisbook." Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Amato's (the Riot Brothers books) novel takes the form of a journal that a teacher secretly places in the Writer's Corner of her classroom, encouraging the students who discover it to " 'talk' to one another in these pages." Their written conversations largely consist of trading barbs-often boys-vs.-girls-themed-many of which are silly or mean-spirited. In their words and rudimentary pictures, several boys trot out a juvenile humor that some readers will find off-putting: after one makes his initial entry ("My name is Luke. It rhymes with puke"), another responds, "Great picture. Made me laugh so hard, snot almost came out my nose." Fed up with the "lies and mean stuff" in the boys' entries, bossy Lizzy and her best friend whisk the book off to the girls' bathroom. The boys nonetheless retrieve it, and their fellow classmates declare the purloiners the "Queens of Mean." Finally Luke proffers a peace plan, suggesting they all cooperate to write a single fictional story ("No getting sad or mad. It's just fun"). As the students collaborate on an inane tale in which they rescue their teacher and journal from invading aliens, readers know from their handwriting who is contributing each passage. In the journal's final entry, the teacher commends her students for figuring out how to work together. Ages 7-10.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 2 4 Ms. Wurtz decides to encourage creative dialogue by leaving a blank notebook in her classroom's Writer's Corner so that students will "talk to each other." The only stipulations are to "have fun" and "sign your name," and she promises not to read it until the end of the month. As the children begin to express themselves, alliances and rivalries develop. Personalities are revealed: rule-maker Lizzy; her peacemaker sidekick, Yoshiko; class clown Luke; and organizer/self-proclaimed editor Milton contribute to the journal and illustrate their handwritten entries. As the boys' bathroom humor escalates against the girls' pleas to write only "nice things," a rebellion in words develops. After the journal is "kidnapped," the classmates realize that their writing has become hurtful, and Luke suggests that they all contribute to a story to end the month's entries without any hard feelings. This seemingly disingenuous tale is carefully planned. It is no surprise that Ms. Wurtz's idea to plant the journal in the Writer's Corner on August 31st will perhaps determine and improve her class's dynamics for the coming school year, in addition to giving her a sense of her budding writers' potential interrelationships. Although the children's adversarial issues and appropriately lame rhyming verse take up their focus at first, the classmates come together with their fictional rescue story in a well-meaning, satisfactory end to the story. Fans of Geronimo Stilton and Marissa Moss's "Amelia" notebooks (S & S) will enjoy this offering. Lynne Mattern, Robert Seaman School, Jericho, NY Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

When their teacher leaves a blank journal in the Writers' Corner, encouraging kids to talk to one another about anything they like, they start off with brief self-portraits in words and sketches, including bits of facts and nonsense. Lizzie tells her classmates to be nice, but she gets mad when the boys mock her and her friends with lots of talk about poop, snot, and stinky feet. Then a classroom war erupts, and Lizzie and her friend Yoshi hide the journal in the girls' bathroom--where the boys find it. In the end they apologize to one another, and together they write a story. They call it Invasion of the Journal Snatchers, and even their teacher loves it. Grade-schoolers, boys and girls, will enjoy the slapstick and the farce, whether it's about worms that poop or kids acting crabby; too bad the story perpetuates the stereotype of the librarian who says Shhh! HazelRochman. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.