Three children's books combined to equal one full-length book. The actual titles (to fill in that blank in my title line) are The Best Halloween Ever, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and The Best School Year Ever. I highly recommend them all, especially if you have the time to discuss the children in the books with your own.
There are six Herdman children, one to each grade at Woodrow Wilson School. None of them are ever held back, so you're stuck with whichever one you've got. Beth, the narrator, is "stuck" with Imogene. Now, the Herdman's steal whatever they can, go to anything where they will have refreshments, burn about anything they can, and are all-around undesirables. Until you really think about it. No, I don't want my kids smoking cigars or stealing or picking on other kids but the Herdman's are loyal. As a grownup, I have a problem with the lack of support for poor Mrs. Herdman, who works 2 shifts at the factory and whose dh left years ago. Of course her kids get into trouble -- who's stopping them? But that's not the point of these stories and they are told from a little girl's POV, so we're missing a lot of info.
I can't remember which lesson(s) we learned in the "Halloween" story but it was a pretty funny book.
The "Christmas Pageant" though, well, the Herdmans start going to Beth's church b/c they heard that there are refreshments there. And then through threats to the other kids (who become afraid to try out), they get all the major parts in the Xmas pageant. BUT, they've never heard the Xmas story before. Imagine if you were hearing it for the first time. Imogene plays Mary and she is quite upset and angry that no one made room for very pregnant Mary at the inn and put Mary in a barn. Then she and her brothers playing the Wise Men think it's lame to give the baby Jesus the gifts mentioned in the Bible. On the night of the pageant, they bring the ham that their family was given from the food pantry people and present it to the baby instead of the oil (it's the heart that counts, not the giving of the ham to a Jewish baby -- heck, they didn't understand the value of the original gifts forget pork and Judaism). Tugged at my heart b/c not only did they get that the gift should be the best thing that could be given, they brought their most valuable gift. There were other little things.
In "Best School Year", the year-long assignment for Beth's class (I'm vague on whether Beth is 4th or 5th or 6th grade) is to think of one compliment for each classmate. Toward the end of the year, they draw names and have to come up with as many compliments as they can for the classmate whose name they drew. Beth drew Imogene's. The story spans the school year so lots of little funny stories. There's one incident that Beth thinks Imogene won't want people knowing about b/c it shows Imogene being very sympathetic and kind but when Beth really starts thinking about Imogene, she can come up with quite a few compliments: Beth figures that Imogene can be whatever she wants -- President or Jail Bird.
So, lots of material for discussion with the kids on what's good, what's bad. There's a snotty classmate we talked about some, too. Funny stories that have more than the surface plot line going for them.
"Halloween" is read by Elaine Stritch, the other 2 by C.J. Critt and they both do excellent jobs -- bring different things to the table. C.J.'s gritty voice captures the children's lives well but in my dh's opinion, Ms. Stritch captured the humor better. From Recorded Books and HarperCollins.
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