Our Sixth-Grade Sugar Babies

by Eve Bunting

When a gorgeous seventh-grade boy moves across the street, Vicki is ecstatic - until she remembers her latest school assignment. For one week, Vicki and the rest of her sixth-grade class have to pretend they're parents and carry around five-pound bags of sugar dressed in baby clothes. And if HE sees her carrying around a silly-looking sugar baby, Vicki is sure she'll die of embarrassment. Then one day the worst happens. Vicki has to ditch her baby before her hunky neighbor sees it - and the baby disappears. Now Vicki is frantic. What has happened to her poor sugar baby? And what will this do to her grade? There's only one thing to do - and that's to find out where the baby is, before an already sticky situation turns into an even bigger mess!

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Childrens, Realistic Fiction, Juvenile, Novels

146 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 4, 1990

About the author

Also known as Evelyn Bolton and A.E. Bunting.

Anne Evelyn Bunting, better known as Eve Bunting, is an author with more than 250 books. Her books are diverse in age groups, from picture books to chapter books, and topic, ranging from Thanksgiving to riots in Los Angeles. Eve Bunting has won several awards for her works.

Bunting went to school in Ireland and grew up with storytelling. In Ireland, “There used to be Shanachies… the shanachie was a storyteller who went from house to house telling his tales of ghosts and fairies, of old Irish heroes and battles still to be won. Maybe I’m a bit of a Shanchie myself, telling stories to anyone who will listen.” This storytelling began as an inspiration for Bunting and continues with her work.

In 1958, Bunting moved to the United States with her husband and three children. A few years later, Bunting enrolled in a community college writing course. She felt the desire to write about her heritage. Bunting has taught writing classes at UCLA. She now lives in Pasadena, California.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I pulled this out of a Little Free Library because of a vague regret that I didn't yoink some other '80s and '90s bad cover art titles I've seen chilling in the LFLs over the summer. Our Sixth-Grade Sugar Babies is representative of the genre. Eve Bunting was born in 1928 and she's trying to be hip with the times and grapple with a strange new world different from her own wholesome noodle/she's emulating Judy Blume. Vicki's parents are Divorced and her mother Works and her half-sister is named Keiko and the elderly have Degenerative Conditions. This is a late rider on the important train when children's books started trying to work on presenting the diversity in life experiences that children were already living with. It also hits way too close to home because Vicki and her best friend spend most of their time walking around the neighborhood making fools of themselves to impress the seventh-grade boy who just moved in across the street. Oh, youth is a terrible thing. And everyone is forced to carry around a five-pound bag of sugar to learm Responsibility; these kids are too young to conceptualize pregnancy. Sweet Sam and Babe are terrible names for humanoid bags of sugar. But the most important thing is Vicki's relationship with the kind old man with Alzheimers's down the block. Also, Vicki's mom makes a wildly logical compromise about babysitting Keiko and I was pleased that she came up with the idea that I was yelling at her for not proposing during most of the story. In the end, the sixth-grader with the vampire sugar baby asks Vicki on a date, because if a boy is an obnoxious little brat who won't stop, he probably likes you, and you should acquiesce to his attentions. This book wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either, hence the three stars.

[kathrine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to read this book for a lit cirlcle in school. Only the girls read this book having to do with a 5th grader liking a boy. Our Sixth Grade Sugar Babies is about a girl named Vicki and her friends Ellie who like a boy who moved into their neighborhood. They don't know his name so they nickname him "Thunk". Meanwhile Vicki and her class have to do a project where they carry around 5 pound sacks of sugar and pretend they are babies. The book is mostly about growing up and learning to be responsabile. It goes on to show how Vicki may have messed up a few times but fixed them and earned her responsability.

I now know how Vicki feels about the sugar babies because my teacher made us do them! It was hard to lug them around everywhere we went but I got used to it and it was kinda fun!

[Marlo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this in a box of my childhood books that hadn’t been unpacked since my last move, over 8 years ago. Spent a lovely afternoon reading through some of the books. So many with too strong of an interest in dating for 6th graders, but this book had some good points and ultimately, I enjoyed the friendship between the young girl and her elderly neighbor who had Alzheimer’s. 3.5 stars

[Karina veras · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a sixth grade girl and her bestfriend who likes a 7th grader, that just moved into their neighborhood.Her bast friends name is Ellie and her name is Vicki. They didnt know is name so her best fiend Ellie came up with a name Thunk (terrific hunk). One day Thunk was in front of his house talking to a girl.So Ellie and Vicki decided to make an excused just to talk to him.but it didnt go well. But then their teacher made them do a project of responsibility, so they had to take care of a sugar baby for a week. Everytime Thunk pass by they try to hide their sugar babies.
Theirs this kid she calls Horrible Harry. He bodered her since first grade.One day Horrible Harry's sugar baby always bothered Vicki's sugar baby. So the teacher said when someone likes you it means that they like you. Then this kid came out of nowhere and said Harry always bothers Vicki.Everybody started saying harry likes Vicki, Harry likes Vicki.Harry started blushing. Then the teacher told everybody to settle down.Then Harry pass a note to Vicki,asking her out on a date.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eleven-year-old Vicki has to take care of a five-pound bag of sugar for a week as a school project. She likes the seventh-grade boy who just moved in across the street, and doesn't want him to see it. She wants to go to Iowa to help babysit her four-year-old half-sister, and she hopes this project will show her mother she's responsible enough to do it. There's also a positive depiction of a neighbor with Alzheimer's.

I'm pretty sure if I'd read this in fifth or sixth grade, I would have really liked it. I can see myself naming and dressing my sugar baby, though I never would have named her Babe.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as a kid, but the cover I had was the girls looking back to the hunk on a bicycle. *SIGH* Oh to be young again heh.

[Melia Vindua]

It was sooooo GREAT!!! XDD
kind of my Favorites!!!
about to Finish it! :33

[Don Heiman · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1990 The Trumpet Club Special Edition Series under arrangements with HarperCollins Children’s Books published Eve Bunting’s novel “”Our Sixth-Grade Sugar Babies.” The novel is about a California grade school program called “Sugar Babies.” This program teaches students citizenship based on important principles for serving the societal and basic needs of American citizens of all ages. The book’s main characters are Vicki Charlip, her mother, her school friendship group, a new Junior High School boy neighbor she nicknamed “Thunk.”, an aged and somewhat demented Mr. Ambrose, and a decorated plastic wrapped bag of sugar, The decorated bag has facial features, ears, and baby doll clothing. Sam “Thunk” asks Vicki to show him the best route to bike ride to the community library. She likes “Thunk” very much and she doesn’t want to complicate her first one-on-one experience with him by toting a bagged Sugar Baby while escorting him to the library. Before she is in Thunk’s presence, she asks Mr.Ambrose to look after her “Sugar Baby” which she hid in Mr. Ambrose’s front yard palm tree. This decision to leave Sugar Baby” violates her teacher’s instruction to never abandon her sugar baby during the seven continuous day course assignment period. If caught, Vicki believes she will get a failing grade from Mrs. Orda. The book explains how Vicki’s Sugar Baby is lost, the events that lead to it being found, Vicki’s confession of her failure to honor the course requirements, and the surprising grade she received for reporting and filing notes on her failing to follow her teacher’s Sugar Baby abandonment guidelines. The ending chapter to the book is surprising and very thought provoking. (P)

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a gorgeous seventh-grade boy moves across the street, Vicki is ecstatic-until she remembers her latest school assignment. For one week, Vicki and the rest of her sixth-grade class have to pretend they're parents and carry around five-pound bags of sugar dressed in baby clothes. And if he sees her carrying around a silly-looking sugar baby, Vicki is sure she'll die of embarrassment.

Then one day the worst happens. Vicki has to ditch her baby before her hunky neighbor sees it-and the baby disappears. Now Vicki is frantic. What has happened to her poor sugar baby? And what will this do to her grade? There's only one thing to do-and that's to find out where the baby is, before an already sticky situation turns into an even bigger mess!

[Librarian Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vicki and Ellie are excited to see that the new family moving in across the street has a very cute boy in the seventh grade! Ellie immediately names him Terrific Hunk, or Thunk for short. Then the students in the sixth grade class each take on a five pound bag of sugar as a baby to take care of and carry around for a week. Then Thunk finds out what the girls have nicknamed him and Vicki loses her sugar baby. Will he ever be friends with them? What will Vicki’s teacher and classmates do to her?

[Hannah Lang · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know what to do with this book. Did I cry for the last 30 pages as the MC learned a lesson and found her neighbor with dementia? Yes. Did this book horribly have the female characters always so focused on their appearance and their flaws and promote the boys tease girls they like thing? Also yes. Would I recommend reading this? No. It’s not a good book but it’s also a tiny bit good. I just don’t know.

[Bethany · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know I never had to carry a fake baby, bag of sugar or anything in my home ec class. Although I heard stories about how every other class had to do it. And my sister, had to in hers. I feel like I might have missed out on a rite of passage here. Or not.
I remember this book was alright, but I was pretty ambivalent over the characters and the story.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A childhood favorite of mine circa 1996-ish! I’ve been reading it to my 6 & 8 year old daughters at bedtime for the past couple of weeks and enjoying it all over again. My girls said they thought it was “AHHmazing” and can’t wait to read it again too.

[Gale · Rating 3 out of 5]

PLEASE BABYSIT RESPONSIBLY

The title states the maximum age of reader interest for this book, but it provides an interesting springboard for class discussion on juvenile behavior, peer pressure, and general schoolage morality. An insightful teacher challenges her pupils to carry five-pound bags of sugar (with appropriate decorations and clothes) with them everywhere, as an experiment in Responsibility. (I know for a fact that real teachers do this also, though they may substitute flour for sugar.) These sugar babies have names and must never be left alone, as if they are alive.

The conflict arises when Vicki is torn between her crush on a cute older boy whom she wants to impress and her goal to earn an A on the Sugar Baby assignment. She desperately wants to convice her mother that she is mature enough to travel out of state to mind her half sister for the summer. Will she cheat and lie when her sugar baby is lost--due to her own carelessness?

Vicki learns a lot during this unusual experiment, not only about responsible babysitting, but also about the courage required to admit her mistakes. How much will she confess when so much is at stake? This book is deeper than the title implies: which came first, Bunting's book or a real class assignment? It works both ways.

(June 6, 2012. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)

[Allison Renner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember reading this book as a kid as wishing my school would give us sugar babies! Vicki and her friend Ellie are trying to flirt with the new seventh-grade boy on their block while being responsible for their sugar babies, which they're being graded on. Vicki has an extra hitch - she wants to prove to her mother that she can babysit her younger half-sister. Things get messed up when boys trump responsibility and Vicki asks her mentally-handicapped neighbor to watch her baby.

[Demery · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was REALLY cute. The envy, mystery, and curiousity involved in the story makes you NEED to read on!

[Cass]

it is ok

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does anyone remember reading this book in 4-5 grade? It used to be one of my favorites.

[Sunana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned that if you make an effort, something amazing might happen

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book in my sisters shelf. Read all the other books in the house I think

[Serena Thong · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really liked it and hope there will be way more books like this

[Jenifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

really funny and teaches you about responsibility.

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read this with sixth graders. Wish there was more about the sugar babies, than the cute neighbor. A bit boring and unadventurous for my taste

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting while funny. good book to read.

[Alisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even my boys liked it. Since I have a sixth grader it was a good choice for us. He learned a lot about how girls view boys in the sixth grade. :)

[Chester Philbrick]

I THINK THIS BOOK IS AMAZING!

[Marquisha Jones]

i havent read

[Jaida · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first Eve Bunting book I ever read and now Eve Bunting is my favorite writer