Something has gone wrong in Danny and Calvin's fourth-grade classroom-out of the blue, Mrs. Cakel has transformed from a rampant rule-enforcer to a quiet excuse-accepter. Has she been replaced with an alien? Has she undergone a top-secret personality makeover? Danny and Calvin decide there's only one way to find out what's really going on-- spy.
But spying soon leads to a greater mystery filled with dog chasing, jelly-injected donuts, prune butter-included experiments, riddle mania, and more! Over and above that, though, the book artfully portrays a dynamic friendship between seeming opposites that points to ways of making better choices without losing the fun.
It is filled with Danny's doodles, which will appeal to some readers and make a first chapter book less intimidating. While an easy read, Adler deftly incorporates deeper issues, such as Mrs. Cakel's solitary life and Calvin's father abandonment of his family. I write both fiction and non-fiction. I begin my fiction with the main character. The story comes later. Of course, since I'll be spending a lot of time with each main character, why not have him or her be someone I like?
Andy Russell is based, loosely, on a beloved member of my family. He's fun to write about and the boy who inspired the character is even more fun to know. Cam Jansen is based even more loosely on a classmate of mine in the first grade whom we all envied because we thought he had a photographic memory. Now, especially when my children remind me of some promise they said I made, I really envy Cam's amazing memory.
I have really enjoyed writing about Cam Jansen and her many adventures. For my books of non-fiction I write about subjects I find fascinating. To research that book, I bought a set of encyclopedia. Those books told me what each of the places Golda Meir lived in were like when she lived there.
