Wong: Minn and Jake

Wong, Janet. Minn and Jake. New York: Farrar, 2003.

This book was so adorable, and almost refreshing to me. I don't really know how to explain it except that the dialogue was great and the way Minn and Jake's friendship developed was just really cute. There was a lot of humor in the way the characters related to one another. Even at the 5th grade level the kids were at, the boys were still proving they weren't in love with a certain girl, and the "best friend" title seemed to move about among the girls. The kids at my preschool change best friends daily, maybe even hourly, so I'm use to hearing about children being upset when they have to find a new best friend. I thought it was neat that Minn had a plan to pick a new best friend. I remember in class we were talking about how she forgot what it was like when friends talked about her behind her back, and she told everyone about Jake's embarrassing moment with the lizards. However, she did feel bad about it and decided to help him learn to catch a lizard.
I thought it was brave of Minn to try and save Henry, whom she thought had gone into the river. I did not agree with her parents grounding her for 4 months because of it. To me, that is excessive, especially for a 10 year old.
The ending was kind of odd to me, and only when I read it over a second time did I better understand Minn's reaction to Jake moving for the summer. I had to put myself in Minn's shoes as a 10 year old, then I understood why she just took a bath and slept for what was about 16 hours straight. I'm glad she and Jake were able to figure out their summer plans to see each other and have a proper goodbye. Like I said before, it was cute! Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and I'm looking forward to discussing the rest of the book with everyone in class.