Friend or Fiend? with the Pain and the Great One

From School Library Journal Grade 1–3—The Pain and the Great One are back in another series of short vignettes. This time Jacob, aka the Pain, is embarrassed when he makes a mistake in front of the entire class, and Abigail, aka the Great One, deals with the betrayal of trust when her good friend Sasha steals her story. The brother and sister also contend with obnoxious cousins when they visit their curmudgeonly Uncle Phil and with mean Madison Purdy when they have a snow day. Like the previous volumes, this book concludes with a chapter from the family cat, Fluzzy. Stevenson's ink sketches are interspersed throughout the chapters and add detail to the stories. The situations are believable, and many readers will relate to the squabbles between the siblings and their school experiences. A nice addition, but not an essential purchase unless the series has a strong following.—