by Bruce Coville
This book is about the girl in the plain brown wrapper, Jennifer Murdley. At least on good days, she's the one no one notices. On bad days she knows she's ugly but tries to avoid facing it. When assigned to do a report on a pet, she ends up in Mr. Elives Pet Shop. He sells her a toad named Bufo. Upon getting home Jennifer finds out the toad can speak. She soon finds there is more to the story and the toad that meets the eye. Someone would be willing to give Jennifer anything to get something Bufo has. They could even make her beautiful. As she delves deeper in to Bufo, Jennifer learns there is also much more to herself than meets the eye.
This book is about the girl in the plain brown wrapper, Jennifer Murdley. At least on good days, she's the one no one notices. On bad days she knows she's ugly but tries to avoid facing it. When assigned to do a report on a pet, she ends up in Mr. Elives Pet Shop. He sells her a toad named Bufo. Upon getting home Jennifer finds out the toad can speak. She soon finds there is more to the story and the toad that meets the eye. Someone would be willing to give Jennifer anything to get something Bufo has. They could even make her beautiful. As she delves deeper in to Bufo, Jennifer learns there is also much more to herself than meets the eye.
Audience
This book has an end of fifth grade stamp for the reading level, but any girl/child that feels unattractive would relate with the main character (note: this is definitely written for children, not teens.)
Why I Love This Book
I really like Jennifer's journey of discovery. We all need to learn to like ourselves at some point. I really enjoy seeing Jennifer decide her priorities. I really like Bufo. He's hilarious and a loyal friend, he and Jennifer are lucky to have each other. The love story also tears at my heart, but saying more would be a spoiler
Cautions
Other than the theme of beauty and bullying I can't think of anything. This book is used in 4/5 classrooms as a class reading book.
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