Books by Kate Messner
![Marty McGuire [With Earbuds] (2011)](/kate-messner/marty-mcguire-with-earbuds/cover)
language
English
review 1: A clinic in the middle of the Everglades provides the best hope for six kids trying to recover from head injuries or so they believe. The four main protagonists are great and the plot is inventive, but "Wake up Missing" never really delivers. The villains aren't very villainous a...
language
English
series
review 1: I read this book with my 2 kids each night before bed, and it ended up taking us a long time to finish. Sometimes when that happens a book loses a little of its luster. However I think those who enjoyed Capture the Flag will love this 2nd installment. It is exciting and suspensef...
language
English
review 1: This book is about a Girl named Gianna Z. Gianna's life is all about running. She is on the track team at her school and finals are coming up. Gianna has ADD a problem which affects you and your schoolwork. Gianna really hates science. But she has to do a science project where sh...
language
English
review 1: In the future, the weather of the planet has gone crazy. Tornadoes are huge and hit everywhere on Earth on a frequent basis. It is just a part of life along with the storm shelters everyone owns. The town of Placid Meadows is the exception. Tornadoes don't ever cross the towns p...
language
English
series
review 1: A solid middle grade mystery-adventure. This is the first in the series I have read, but my students have enjoyed the others, so I jumped at the chance to load the ARC for this one on my kindle before a recent trip. Fans of 39 Clues and Infinity Ring will enjoy this, (and vice ...
language
English
series
review 1: This story was over the top in totally unbelievable and coincidental events. I know the audience is children and not adults, but most of the kids I know are smart enough to scoff aloud at the dialog and events in this book. The only kid-friendly element I saw were the figure of ...
language
English
review 1: Part nonfiction, part narrative about a girl and her father on a cross-country skiing adventure, this book discusses the hidden life in winter's subnivean zone, or the area right above the ground and below the snow. I loved the cool illustrations and the feeling of calm that the ...
language
English
series
review 1: Third-grader Marty McGuire is not a princessy sort of girl, so when her teacher casts her as the lead in The Frog Prince, she's understandably miffed. She doesn't want to twirl around the stage in a poofy dress. But when she blends her love of amphibians with her role in the pl...
language
English
series
review 1: A book that is long enough for my 7 year old. I'm sick of her reading the books that are 68 pages and that she can finish in one sitting. This book is 162 pages and written ok. We liked the idea of a story about a compost pile since we have started one ourselves, but this book wa...
language
English
review 1: This really was a cute book about ice skating. The dialogue flowed well. The storyline flowed well. The story had a good arc. It was quick. The only thing that I found a tiny bit odd was that the language seemed a lot older than a thirteen-year-old would use. I don't know a...
language
English
series
review 1: This book is #1 in the series which my daughter and I had already started with a previous-read-aloud (#2 in the series), Marty McGuire Digs Worms!. I believe I liked MMDW better, however, but I think my daughter liked both equally. In this one, Marty is in 3rd grade and is assi...
language
English
series
review 1: Abi read this in about a day. She loved it and thought it was really funny. She loved that Marty, the 3rd grade female protagonist, wasn't afraid to hold the frog. I have no idea what that references, but she loved it. This is a book on the "Chat-n-Chew" list for Abi's school (a ...
language
English
series
review 1: I want my future child to be like Marty McGuire. Maybe without the worms.The second book with Marty, this one about Marty having to "save the world" with a class project. Some kids plant petunias, others work toward recycling, but Marty is thinking compost and worms, to predict...
language
English
series
review 1: A great chapter book for the middle elementary crowd! Messner is so good at tight plotting, characterization, and hitting just the right tone for her readers. Both boys and girls will enjoy this second Marty McGuire book, and they don't need to have read the first one to enjoy th...
language
English
review 1: Messner, Kate, and Andy Rash. Sea monster's first day. San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books, 2011. Print. It's Ernest's first day of school. Fun school activities await him--singing songs, fieldtrips, storytelling, etc.--but so do challenges. Making friends isn't always easy, b...
language
English
review 1: "Author's aren't writers, we're rewriters!" Kate Messner would pump her fists in agreement with Linda Sue Park's statement. This professional book gives readers a glimpse into the labor-intensive process of making books and revising them, as well as, scaffolded lessons that show ...
language
English
review 1: The best part of this book, in my opinion, was reading about a protagonist suffering from what is clearly clinical anxiety and not brushing it under the rug as "oh, she's cautious". Too often in mid-grade and YA you see characters with serious problems that are never addressed, o...