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Frances, after much careful thought and trademark singing, puts things right. Frances, a little badger, is tricked by her good friend, Thelma, into buying a crappy plastic tea set so Thelma can purchase the beautiful china set Frances truly wants. Think of it as "Mean Girls" badger-style. I'm lucky enough to still have the hardback copy of "Frances" I owned as a kid, complete with make-shift library card my sister made and glued to the inside cover. And the simple drawings and wry dialogue endear me just as much today as they did when I was five.
I highly recommend this book for first and second graders who are just beginning to read books. Frances wants a new china tea set, but her friend convinces her to buy a plastic red one. Will they stay friends.The writing is easy and pleasant.
It has a good lesson hidden in with the pleasure, too, and small children will love the badger theme. A Bargain for Frances was one of my daughter's favorite books as a child. She asked me to buy it for my 3 year old granddaughter, and it was just as cute and entertaining as ever.
It was a fun read for my 2nd grader and it teaches a good lesson about being careful when friends might try to manipulate you. I liked the book very much. It won a New York Times "Outstanding book of the year" award.
My kids have a strong sense of fair play (don't most). That provided a little lesson for the kids too. at poor Thelma, when she realized that Frances had turned the tables.
And I appreciate that they found a solution themselves, and amicably at that, without needing to haul in parents or counselors or the police.On a sadder note, the illustration in my copy doesn't seem quite up to par with some of the other Frances books. "How would you improve this picture. Frances looks almost cold, she's missing so much fur.
. Of course I did remind them that deception may not be the best solution for this kind of problem, but the poetic justice was hilarious to behold. What did you like better about the other pictures."
I read the Frances books when I was young and was delighted to rediscover them for/with my own children. and they loved to see Frances outwit her sometime friend.
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