Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls, Moving Day by Meg Cabot is a realistic fiction chapter book for elementary
students.
Summary
Allie Finkle’s best friend
Mary Kay is a bit high maintenance. So,
when Allie’s parents announce that they will be moving across town Allie is
excited about the prospect of a new best friend and a new kitten. That is, until she discovers that the house
they are moving into is big, dark, old and creepy. She is sure the house is right out of the the
TV series her mother loves, Please Come
Fix Up My House. And, to top it off,
her new potential best friend’s brother warned her not to go into the
attic. Allie thought the new house might
be haunted, but after this new information, she was determined not to let her
family move into that new house.
Allie makes up and writes
down her Rules for Girls in a spiral
notebook to help her remember how to live a good life. She has rules about friendship, what to eat,
and even science rules. She tries hard to
abide by her rules, but occasionally breaks them.
Allie has a few tricks up her
sleeve to prevent the move. Along the
way she upsets her testy best friend even more, and some mutual friends stage
an intervention to get them back together.
There’s a failed attempt at rescuing a tortured show cat, and a
successful attempt to free a turtle at a Chinese restaurant that Allie believes
may ultimately become turtle soup.
Meanwhile, as Allie gets to know the new neighbor and her friends she
discovers what real friendship looks like.
In the end, Allie will have
to face her fears of the new attic and decide if the house is truly
haunted.
Impression
Allie Finkle is such a lovable character. Her voice in the
novel is an authentic nine-year-old girl.
Her life’s dramas very much
reflect those of your typical middle class 4th grader. At first, I thought I would be annoyed with her
nine-year-oldness, but I couldn't help being drawn in. Allie Finkle tries to be a good friend, even
though she knows the friendship is flawed.
She sometimes makes mistakes, which further highlights her believability. However, she stands up for what she believes
in making her a great role model. The
story is light and funny, with small lessons sprinkled throughout. As a girl, she is someone you want to be
like, or be friends with, even though you know she is not perfect.
Library Uses
Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls, Moving Day would be an excellent book to use for an elementary
school book club, especially for girls.
After reading the book, students could create their own, “rules for
girls” which could be displayed in the library.
Discussions could center around friendships, moving, and standing up for
what you believe in.
Professional Reviews
Like
every other kid lately, nine-year-old Allie Finkle is developing her list of
rules for friendships, school situations, family and overall life. Dos and
don’ts for any newly minted tween can get pretty complicated when an already
unsettling relationship with a so-called best friend is augmented by one’s
parents’ decision to sell their comfortable suburban dwelling and move to an
un-renovated Victorian-style, 100-year-old gloomy and possibly haunted house in
the city. And, what about the new (really old and crowded) school and a fourth
grade filled with unfriendly faces? Allie is stressed but decides to take
charge by hatching a scheme to prevent the sale of her suburban house and thus,
the move. Cabot’s endearing, funny and clever protagonist will have readers
simultaneously chuckling and commiserating as succeeding chapters introduce
individual “rules” for Allie to contemplate and accept. Lessons on friendship
and fickleness, sneaky behavior, lying, animal cruelty and theft (although
paying for a “rescued” pet turtle that was never for sale may raise some
eyebrows) merge to create a humorous and heartwarming story. Allie’s
first-person voice is completely believable with just the right amount of
tongue-in-cheek wit. Despite the now-overdone rules concept, readers will
eagerly await Allie’s next installment in her new home, school and
neighborhood. (Fiction. 8-11)
--Kirkus, 2008
References
Cabot, M. (2008). Allie
Finkle's rules for girls Moving day. New York: Scholastic Press.
MOVING DAY by Meg Cabot |
Kirkus. (2008, January 1). Retrieved March 31, 2015, from
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/meg-cabot/moving-day-2/
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