The Judy Moody series continues with Judy Moody Around the World in 8 1/2 Days. Megan McDonald is the creator of the popular fictional third grader. Judy Moody’s name rhymes and she is quite proud of it. Amey Namey is a new student at Virginia Dare School. She like Judy Moody has a name that rhymes. The two become fast friends.

Amey Namey invites Judy to become a member of the My-Name-Is-a-Poem-Club. Judy readily accepts the invitation. Yet, to do so Judy does not attend Toady’s big race at the pet shop. All the other Toad Pee Club members attend. Stink Moody, Judy Moody’s younger brother, is a member. Rocky and Frank, Judy’s classmates and friends in Class 3T, are members too.

Class 3T and 3V imitates Nellie Bly’s trip around the world. The teachers divide the children into small groups. Each group is to report on a specific country traveled by Ms. Bly. Judy, Rocky, Frank and Jessica are one group. Their country is Italy. The group must make a presentation, but things go wrong! Judy Moody mistakenly misses the weekend meeting. Her old friends believe she intently snubbed them for Amy Namey. She has forgotten her old friends. They no longer speak or work with her. Will the group make their presentation? Will Judy Moody lose her dear friends?

Megan McDonald writes third grade characters who are real. They squabble at home with siblings and at school with classmates. In Judy Moody Around the World in 8 1/2 Days, the children learn to share friends with others and to work out their problems on their own. These children grow and learn new social skills. Yet, they accomplish this while eating pizza, attending animal races, making bubble gum and doing other third grade activities.

Megan McDonald’s Judy Moody Around the World in 8 1/2 Days has one hundred and fifty-eight pages in the paperback edition. The early reader chapter book is for children between six and nine-years-old. It is for the advanced early chapter book reader. The book has twelve chapters. Three times as many found in a beginning chapter book. The storyline is more complex and challenging. Yet, the publisher continues to use a large font and illustrations. Peter H. Reynolds sketches the students in pen and ink. The book is available in Spanish and German editions.





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