Spaghetti Book Club - Book Reviews by Kids for Kids

Is it hard for you to make friends? It was hard for a girl named Molly who came to America from Russia. A girl named Elizabeth laughed at her because she wore different clothes and talked differently. For example, they sang to her, "Jolly Molly, Your eyes are awfly small. Jolly Molly, Your nose is awfly tall." One day at school her teacher said the class would do some different homework for Thanksgiving. The homework was to make a pilgrim doll out of a clothespin. When Molly got home she told her mama about her homework but Molly's mama didn't understand. Molly explained the word pilgrim to her mama. Then Molly's mama had an idea. She said the pilgrim would be ready in the morning. The next morning Molly found the pilgrim on the table. It looked beautiful. The problem was the pilgrim looked like the picture of Molly's mama. When Molly got to school . . . well sorry you'll have to read the book to find out what happened to Molly and the doll.

We liked this book because it teaches us that you should treat others the way you wish to be treated no matter what a person looks like. We also like the people who helped Molly out. These characters were the teacher, Mrs. Stickley, and Molly's Mama. This book reminds me (Elana) of when I moved to New Jersey. New Jersey was different from New York. There were less kids in my class in New York and the school was bigger than this new school. The differences were something I had to get used to just like Molly. We liked the illustrations because they look real even though they are in black and white.

We recommend this book to kids who come from other states and countries. We also recommend this book to children who like pilgrim stories. We think you will like the setting of Winterhill. If I (Kadie) am right, you will like other Molly books written by Barbara Cohen. For example, another book written by Barbara Cohen is Make a Wish Molly. We hope you like this book.