Here She Is, Ms Teeny-Wonderful

Carol & Wally #1

by Martyn Godfrey

Carol cannot believe it when she learns that her mother has entered her in the Ms. Teeny-Wonderful Contest. Her mother is not so excited when Carol decides her talent is to jump six garbage cans on her bike.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Canada

172 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Martyn N. Godfrey (April 17, 1949—2000) was an English-Canadian author of children's fantasy books. Born in Birmingham, England, he moved to Toronto, Ontario when he was eight. Godfrey graduated from university in 1974 with a teaching degree.

Godfrey was the Edmonton Public Library’s writer-in-residence in 1989. He died in 2000. The Young Alberta Book Association presents an annual Martyn Godfrey Young Writers Award in his name.

Reviews

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book about 20 times as a kid, but hadn't read it in years. Got a copy for 50 cents at a library book sale and dove in.

I am happy to say that Carol Weatherspoon, the bmx-jumping heroine of the Teeny Wonderful series, remains as awesome as ever. This book holds up well. It is incredibly well written and tells an excellent feminist story with a Canadian flavour.

I love this book, I love the characters and story and I love that it was published in 1984 and still reads like a modern novel.

A true classic!

(Sobering thought- The mother in this book is 38 years old, only 2 years older than me. YIKES!!)

[Jamie Dacyczyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun book! Such a shame that it's out of print and really hard to find. I read this book a bajillion times when I was a kid, but somehow forgot about it as I grew older. It was probably just one among a hundred other skinny Scholastic-type paperbacks that I had at the time.

I was suddenly reminded of this book about a week ago when I was watching a TV show, and they showed a toy bike jumping over some cans. It was like someone had said the trigger word that released the hypnotist's hold over my mind: WHAM. Suddenly I remembered this book about a girl who liked to jump her bike over trashcans. As I started Googling to find it, more and more details came flooding back: the girl and her best friend were the only ones who could jump over five trashcans. Oh, and her mom entered her into a beauty pageant against her will! And she was supposed to recite a poem for the talent part of the pageant, but instead she did bike jumping on stage! And I remember that the pageant people had prepared her a carpeted jump AND a landing ramp, which she never had before. But they also used barrels instead of trash cans, and the ended up jumping over SIX for the first time, while televised. Whoo! Now that the heck was the title? WAIT, the pageant had some kind of cringey name like Miss Tiny Wonderful? Got it! "Here She Is, Ms Teeny-Wonderful". Yessss!!!

Now, obviously after I'd gone through the effort to re-remember this book, I had to reread it. But, it wasn't available at any libraries that I could access, so I had to shell out a few bucks to buy a used copy online. In a few days a tattered, yellowed copy had shown up in my mailbox.

AND IT WAS WORTH IT.

Not only did I remember all of the details correctly, but as I read I also remembered the hijinks during the pageant when a pair of snobby twins tried to sabotage the jumping girl's (named Carol) chances. What I DIDN'T remember was just how funny this book was. Carol has a scowling tough-girl attitude the whole time because she'd rather be jumping bikes than wearing dresses in a pageant, and the book is full of hilarious quips between her and her best friend Wally, who's just along as Carol's "escort" during the pageant. A line that made me laugh out loud was something Carol muttered to her nemesis evil twins when they coolly insulted her to her face: "When this is over, I'm going to come to Ottawa and bite off your ears." Why is that so funny to me? Dunno, but I literally LOLed. Maybe because the twins were making these snide, polite kind of insults through bland smiles, and then Carol just threatens casual violence, no frills.

This book felt like it came close to the "not like other girls" trope, but it never quite went that far. It's mentioned that other kids (boys and girls) participate in bike jumping in their town. Aside from the evil twins, Carol doesn't seem scornful of the other girls in the pageant, and openly admires the other girls' talents. She doesn't normally wear dresses, but she puts on the required dress and makeup for the pageant without making a big deal out of it.

To sum up, I was really glad to revisit this old friend, and think it's a shame that it's fallen into obscurity (if it was ever out of it). I think kids today would still enjoy this, though the likelihood of it ever being reprinted it pretty small.

[Jared Gush · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Martyn as a young child when he came to my elementary school to give a presentation and Q & A session. He told us stories about the things his students did that drove him crazy as a teacher and listened to a few stories my teacher told him about me. Suffice to say he had a more than a few laughs hearing about me trying to fit my head into my desk and stuff like that and said he wanted to use me as a character in an upcoming book he was writing. I received an autographed gifted copy a few years later that had a page dog eared . It was bookmarked at the point of where the reader is introduced to the annoying little brother of her competition - Jared. He was a kind man with a gentle heart. RIP Martyn

[Rosemary Dinsdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining couldn't put it down till I finished kind of book. Very cute story.

[Jessica DeWitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things I enjoyed about this book:
- Wally is a lovely human and brilliant friend, and it is so refreshing to see a boy characterized as caring and thoughtful.
- I liked, of course, that Carol represents an upending of traditional expectations of femininity.

Things I was lukewarm about:
- Carol. She is not that likable of a character, and her lack of interest in things outside of herself turned me off.

Things I didn't like:
- The stereotypical, manipulative mother who is mindlessly obsessed with maintaining the gender status quo, seems unable to approach any situation with any depth of thought, and loves shopping. Seriously, don't enter your children into contests without their consent and then cry when they aren't okay with it. DON'T DO THAT.
- The one-dimensional twin villains were lazily constructed and unbelievable.
- The queer-coding of Mr. Chaple, the side villain.

It is, however, a decent book for preteens. 3 stars.

[Carol L. Millman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had a huge influence on my writing style and sense of humor. I love that the main character is a young pre-teen girl who is not at all feminine. She's into biking, and she's entirely comfortable with who she is as a person. This sends a great feminist message to young girls because even when placed into a beauty pagent, Carol Weatherspoon doesn't cave to peer pressure or society's standards.

Plus it's very funny.

Made me proud to be named Carol when I was growing up, even though I know a lot more words than this character and wasn't half so tough.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is hilarious. It was a great novel study unit for Grade 6 students. My students have loved Carol and Wally. It has also taught them some valuable lessons about gender stereotypes, feminism, and the value of reading Canadian literature!

[Katja Labonté · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars (3/10 hearts). This book was one of those I read over and over to the point of memorization as a teen. My opinion of it, surprisingly, hadn’t changed.

It’s cool. What girl doesn’t find the idea of being crowned Miss Something cool? Fancy hotels, pretty dresses, lovely feasts, a contest, and the whole televised… it’s just cool. And I love Irene’s idea for the whole Ms. Teeny-Wonderful thing.

It’s relatable. Carol’s fear of flying, at any rate. And honestly, a lot of her thoughts and feelings and reactions are realistic. They’re not ideal, but they’re realistic.

It’s familiar. As a Canadian, and with Albertan family (aka, my mother and her family), the language, attitudes, and characteristics are familiar and comforting. I love Wally and his excellent (platonic) friendship with Carol! It’s one of the best friendships I’ve read.

It’s engaging. The characters are so alive. The plot is gripping. The humour is awesome. Right up to the very end.

So, with all the praises, why 3 stars only? Here’s the thing that makes it a hard read for me. 1) The recurring second-hand embarrassment. I HATE SECOND-HAND EMBARRASSMENT. It’s my least favourite comedy device ever and makes me so insanely uncomfortable. 2) The consistent meanness. Look, Jean + Joan & their boyfriends/cousins are little monsters. Straight up. They make me so upset by their deliberate, malicious cruelty. It’s horrid. But I also hate Wally’s revenge at the end—it’s pretty awful for Joan, even if “she had it coming,” so to speak. Deserved or not, the meanness and anger distresses me and always has. It’s always taken me a few sittings to get through this book because I have to keep putting it down and calm down/brace myself for the next bit.

But yes, I really really like it.

Content: euphemisms, an eye-roll/patronizing attitude towards parents, general insults and unkindness, a few mentions of flipping off + other vulgar behaviour, a scene where a girl is trapped in the guys’ bathroom, a scene where a girl’s clothes rip and leave her in her underwear before an audience.

[SmartFroggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's obvious that this book isn't well-known, but I thought it was pretty good! It's a short little book that takes maybe and hour and a half to read if you're fast, so if you want a bit of a laugh and a good book, but don't feel like starting a series, this is a great book to read.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my earliest memories of loving books was when my 4th-grade teacher read this book aloud to us. This book has a great plot and timeless themes of friendship, being true to yourself, female empowerment, and bullying. I wish I had a copy to read to my own children.

[Pablo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very funny it is about a Girl that Loves to ride bicycle. And one they when she returns from the school her mother toll her that she have put her into a contest of what thing you do best an the best one in the contest would win alot of prizes. But instead of her mother put in the contest to do tricks with the bicycle she put her into say poems because in third grade she write a poem that was wonderful. But what the mother doesnt know is that that poem was copy from a book. So when they arrived to the contest that was in another country the girl doent know how to explain to her mother that that poem was not of her. But then she said to her mother and the pesons that organized the contest change the presentation that the girl was going to do that was to say that poem to do a really good trick with the bicycle. So at the last the girl win the contest and recieved all the prices.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

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