Jenifer Murdley's Toad

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.

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.

The Unicorn Chronicles

I started this series in elementary school, but it was not finished until earlier this year.  When orphaned Cara and her grandmother are chased into a church by an assailant Cara almost recognizes, her grandmother tells her to jump off the steeple on the stroke of twelve and shout "Luster bring me home."  Once in Luster, Cara is supposed to tell the queen "The Wanderer is Weary."  The magical world of Luster is indeed the land of the unicorns, full of friends and adventures.  Cara finds that this place is part of her own heart and swears to protect it against the Unicorn Hunters, or "Hunters."  As she explores her ties to this magical place it becomes clear that her destiny has been tied to Luster all along, but all is not as it seems.

What I Love About These Books

I can't help it, Lightfoot will always be the ultimate unicorn to me.  I genuinely like all the characters and was invested in Cara's struggles to define herself in the conflict.  Bruce Coville's wisdom shines through in the voices of a couple of characters.  One of my favorite quotes of all time comes out of this series. Watching young characters Luster has a piece of my heart and I was on the edge of my seat to make sure all my favorite characters lived happily ever after.  Warning: Not all of them did.

Cautions
1) These books start out for kids, but the latter two are longer, more complex and much darker
2) The first two books deal with finding home and family, as well as defining one's self.  Books 3 and 4 delve into the nature of evil and of a relationship with an imperfect creator

Series
Into the Land of the Unicorns
Song of the Wanderer
Dark Whispers
The Last Hunt