Jake Drake, Class Clown (Ready-For-Chapters)

From Publishers Weekly Serious attempts to get a grumpy student teacher to crack a smile yield unexpected results in Jake Drake, Class Clown by Andrew Clements, illus. by Dolores Avenda¤o, the fourth title about Jake in this Ready-for-Chapters series. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From School Library Journal Grade 2-5-In previous books, Jake has been an unwilling "teacher's pet," a "bully buster," and a "know-it-all," and now he finds himself becoming the class clown. Clements focuses on real-life school problems that plague kids in classrooms everywhere and utilizes humor to make them surmountable and fixable. Here, the fourth grader looks back to second grade when his unsmiling, grumpy student teacher terrifies his classroom. He then becomes too funny for his own good. Jake is an endearing boy who uses his head to sort out appropriate conclusions to bad situations. The characters are well drawn and likable; one rather static full-page black-and-white illustration appears in each chapter. Another winner in the "Jake Drake" series.