Horrible Harry Moves up to the Third Grade

Easy read and easy relataable for students. I was shocked by the main character not being Harry. I had always assumed that these stores were from Harry's persepctive. These texts can be used for teaching chapter books to beginning readers. This one specifically is for third grade. I hope to get the

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chance to read it at the end of the second grade year to my third graders that will start next year. I think it will be a nice ice breaker and a good chance to read aloud to them over a period of three or four visits. My students need repeated exposure to be comfortable so what better way to create a bond than to share a story book. I know there are themes for all of the Horrible Harry books, so I should be able to find one for any occassion.

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The narrator's name is Doug, and his friend is the eponymous Horrible Harry. They meet up at the start of this book on their way to the first day of third grade. The boys panic, though, when nothing is what they expected: teachers are gone, the secretary is different, and their room is not where it

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should be. Fortunately, they run into the principal during their hysteria, and he directs them to the right place and teacher. They both have Miss Mackle, their teacher from last year, because their whole class looped together to third grade. Once there, Doug learns that some things have not changed; Harry is still his best friend, he and Sidney are still enemies, and Harry still has to get revenge when Sidney pulls a prank on him.

The students learn that they are studying rocks in science this year. Doug took a trip to a copper mine over the summer, and when he shares this with the class, Miss Mackle decides to take the class there as a field trip. Doug is nervous, because he was too frightened to go down in the mine when he went with his family, and now he has to descend with his classmates. Also, Harry is mad at Sidney for squashing his pet spider, and has shaken his fist at him, which means he wants revenge. This indicates the potential for even more trouble on the field trip.

I liked this book, which is the first I've read in the Horrible Harry series. What I think the author does extremely well is capture a child's perspective. Doug and Harry's irrational fear when the teachers are gone at the beginning, and their exclamation that they think they are on Mars, for example. Or the fact that Doug is afraid to go underground because he read Tom Sawyer and was frightened by the section where Tom and Becky are trapped in a cave. The characters were real third grade children. As for the story, it was fun and entertaining enough, although not as exciting as other beginning chapter book series.

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Horrible Harry books are good for reluctant readers or first time chapter books readers. They are easy reads with lots of kid humor. After reading a Horrible Harry kids are ready to advance to other chapter books with confidence.

Horrible Harry and friends start off third grade with a new room and a field trip to an old copper mine to study rocks.