What You Need to Know:
• Readers will relate to Grace as they learn about what bothers her and what she is thinking and feeling. A lot of the story is about what is going on in Grace’s head.
• Be prepared for lots of information to keep track of throughout the story.
• There are some lessons imparted, like how to handle something that scares you, how a friend should act and how to deal with a mean girl.
• Written in the first person with almost run on sentences and comic style illustrations, the story allows the reader to see the world through Grace’s eyes.
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Sweet Series Background:
This series chronicles the daily happenings of third grader, Grace Stewart. We learn early on are that she likes to draw comics, as the reader can see throughout the book, and that she has a “teeny tiny superpower” that sometimes gets her into trouble. The superpower is empathy (a topic also covered in The Talented Clementine by Sara Pennypacker) and the desire to help those in need, even when she probably should hold back. Grace thinks that both her drawing and her superpower are “boy things” and because of that she tries to keep them to herself.
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Sweet
Book Summary:
In the first book in this series, Grace ends up being called “just Grace” in her class of four Graces and she is not happy about it. She also learns from her family’s French basement tenant that their neighbor is feeling very sad. At first Grace doesn’t sympathize because she is scared of the neighbor but before long her “superpower” takes over and she is plotting to turn things around for her. With the help of her best friend, Mimi, she comes up with a complicated plan of which her parents know little. Although Grace’s intentions are good, there are some “miscommunications” along the way and she ends up in some minor trouble.
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Author:
Charise Mericle Harper
Illustrator:
Charise Mericle Harper
Published:
2008, 144 pages
Themes:
Animals (cats), Friendship, Self-Awareness, Community, School
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