Popular Rolly Maloo asks Jenna to help her cheat on a math test and Jenna is torn. Cheating is wrong but it's Rolly asking her for help! Jenna gives in and is caught by their teacher Mrs. Pie. It's not immediately clear who's involved in the cheating and Jenna isn't forthcoming with information. But classmate Shorn L. saw it all and is determined to see justice done and Jenna's name cleared. The book covers a topic relevant to just about every grade level but I found the side stories distracting (the social-climbing PTA moms and the push/pull between the principal and Mrs. Pie). ( )

I sat reading part of this book to my husband this morning when he finally got up. I told him that no book this simple should bring up such strong emotions in me, but it did. Let me start by saying it struck a nerve with me because I am a 6th grade teacher. I see bullying and unfair treatment of teachers and unfair parents all the time.
Jenna is a poor girl who wears second hand clothes, Molly and Patsy are the two popular girls whose mothers are in charge of the PTO. The district test is coming up and and the winner usually competes in the county competition. That is usually Jenna. Molly and Patsy decide to get Jenna to help them cheat. When they call and invite her over, her mother tells her no. She mistakenly thinks they want to be her friend. The next day they toss a note to her asking for an answer and she helps them knowing it is wrong. Then a second balled up note flies across the room and she is caught. She doesn't tell on the girls and that is where the trouble for me began. The guilty girls mothers gossiped about the situation not knowing the whole story. By the time the story had gotten around school and finally back to the principal at home, Innocent people had been pulled in and the teacher had been called and chewed out.
I kept seeing the injustice being done to students and the teacher because some thought themselves better than others. I loved the underlying story of taking kids out of PE, Art and Music to put them in a second math class instead of bringing in a tutor to help them. In our district we call that remedial math. Anyway, I loved this book. ( )