"Mayhem breaks out in the fifth grade when the Venice Menace bullies his classmates into letting him become a regular guest on Kidsview, the school's radio program!"
Awards and Nominations:
- Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award Nominee (1992)
I teach 5th grade and I'm always keeping an eye out for books where the main characters are in 5th grade. These students can easily relate to these characters because they are the same age and most of the time they are experiencing middle school for the first time. So when I saw this book on Scholastic I knew I had to order it in hopes that I could use it as a read-aloud in class.
Radio Fifth Grade is the story of a group of students who are in charge of running the school's radio program on Saturdays. Every week the radio show has a mascot of the week. The local pet store sponsors the show and has them try to "sell" the pet on the radio by talking it up and sharing special things about the pet. One Saturday they get a parrot that is supposed to talk, but no one can get him to speak. Things fly out of control and the bird doesn't get purchased by anyone the following week. Plus, the class gets a new teacher who is determined to give the students an abundance of homework for them to do over the weekend. The homework interferes with the radio show, but things escalate even further when the school bully decides he is going to be a regular on the show reading a poorly written story.
This book had so much going on in it. The chaoticness of this book really stressed me out, but honestly, I think kids would enjoy the random things that happen. I loved Venice Menace in the book. He was the bully that insisted on being a regular on the show to read his poorly written story. He was encouraged by a teacher to read the story. He read it on the air, everyone realized it absolutely stunk, but they didn't tell him. They were all so scared of him that they told him it was fantastic. So he decided to play his own little prank by "forcing" everyone to go along with it and having them give reviews and fill out forms about the story. In the end, we learn that he wanted someone to stand up to him and tell him that the story was bad and he needed to stop. There are so many kids that will push things and push things and push things just because they want someone to set boundaries and rules and tell them no. This was the same kind of situation. I also loved all the ways the students tried to trick their teacher so that they didn't have to do the homework and so she wouldn't listen to the radio show.
I felt like this story lacked a solid plot. There was one there, but it was poorly written and buried under the jokes and hijinks. I wasn't a fan of the pet store owner. He came across as being really rude and mean, especially to Mark who seemed to always be messing things up. I personally felt like the pet store owner was being a little over the top and extreme to a kid. I also wasn't a fan of the radio sponsor. He was always reading and NEVER helped the kids when something had hit the fan and they seriously needed help. Even when they would ask for advice or what to do, he would shrug and basically be like figure it out. I definitely got the vibe that he was just there for the extra stipend on his paycheck.
This was a fun little book, but it's not like any of the other books I've read by Korman. I think some of my students will enjoy this, but I don't think it packs enough punch for me to use it as a read-aloud in class. I give this 2 stars. It just didn't have the exciting razzle-dazzle that the summary led up to. I also just want to talk real quick about the original teacher and how she won the lottery, quit her job, and moved to Hawaii. Because girl, I feel that on a different level.
No comments:
Post a Comment