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39 Kids on the Block #2
The Best Present Ever
Jan's environment-conscious father refuses to buy her a fur muff, Mary Kate's mother says no to a dog in the house, the Tooth Fairy has yet to come for Michael's troublesome baby teeth, and Rusty's parents show no signs of returning home from Brazil.
92 pages, Library Binding
First published November 1, 1989
18 people want to read
About the author
Jean Marzollo
401 books74 followersJean Marzollo was an American children's author and illustrator best known for the I Spy series, a best-selling and award-winning collection written entirely in rhythm and rhyme and illustrated by Walter Wick. Over her career, she wrote more than 100 books for children, parents, and educators, including Help Me Learn Numbers 0-20, The Little Plant Doctor, and Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King. Born and raised in Connecticut, she graduated from the University of Connecticut and earned a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She taught high school English and later worked in educational publishing, serving for 20 years as editor of Scholastic’s Let’s Find Out Magazine. Later in life, she began illustrating her own books.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 25, 2021
One of my favorite things about Jean Marzollo's 39 Kids on the Block series is that the kids take turns being the main character, and The Best Present Ever is Rusty Morelli's time. He's no longer afraid the farmhouse he and his grandmother recently moved into is haunted; Halloween came and went months ago, and the neighborhood has moved on to Christmas. Rusty, Mary Kate Adams, Jane Fox, Michael Finn, John Beane, and the other kids in their class at Appleville School are busy thinking what they most want this holiday season. For Rusty, it's that's his parents come home from their extended scientific research trip in Brazil. They're rarely able to fly back to the United States due to the cost, but they saved up the funds to do so this Christmas. What could be better than a holiday with family?
Rusty's grandmother isn't big on the religious side of Christmas, but she starts planning a nice day for them all to enjoy. An avid painter, she's creating more artwork than ever, including a gigantic painting she intends to give Rusty as his Christmas present. Holiday cheer goes stale, however, when the Morelli farmhouse roof springs multiple leaks. The cost to fix it is $2,000, exactly how much Rusty's parents saved to pay for their trip home. Stung by the unfairness of the situation, Rusty watches as his parents' travel budget is diverted to provide the new roof; now there's no telling when he'll see them again. This is shaping up to be a lousy Christmas.
Most kids at school are stoked for the holiday party, but there's some question how it should be run. Jane Fox is Jewish; should the class hold a Hanukkah party? What about Michael Finn, who loves Christmas but also wants to engage with Kwanzaa's cultural aspects? Kids from various ethnicities have their own Christmas traditions, so Mr. Carson, the teacher, lists every idea for the party and has the students vote. Surely there's a way to incorporate elements of everyone's favored holiday. Party or no party, Rusty is jaded about his parents not coming home, and some kids are disappointed they won't be receiving the one special gift they asked for. What good is a school party if Christmas morning is a letdown? For Rusty, a solution to his dilemma occurs to him out of the blue: he can sell the samurai sword his parents once brought him as a gift. Rusty will be sad to lose it, but he'd rather see his parents on Christmas. Would Mr. Snow at the local museum purchase the sword from Rusty even without his parents' permission? If not, how can Christmas be anything but a failure? With the help of some friends, Rusty may experience a happy holiday after all, and might also catch his first-ever glimpse of snowfall since moving to Appleville, New Jersey from California. Things have a way of working out for the kids of Rusty's neighborhood.
The Best Present Ever rotely follows multiculturalism trends of 1980s and '90s Christmas entertainment, but it's a charming book with likable characters. The thirty-nine kids of Cortland, Baldwin, and Spy Streets vary widely in age but honestly care about each other: Fizz Eddie Fox is glad to accompany Rusty to the museum when the younger boy asks, and Rusty quells the temptation to inform Mary Kate Adams about the big secret gift from her parents, knowing her surprise will be that much more wonderful Christmas Day. I might consider rating The Best Present Ever two and a half stars; it's a slight improvement over the first book, The Green Ghost of Appleville. If you like Patricia Reilly Giff's various Polk Street Kids series, or Marcia Leonard's The Kids on Bus Five, you'll have fun with Jean Marzollo's 39 Kids on the Block.
Rusty's grandmother isn't big on the religious side of Christmas, but she starts planning a nice day for them all to enjoy. An avid painter, she's creating more artwork than ever, including a gigantic painting she intends to give Rusty as his Christmas present. Holiday cheer goes stale, however, when the Morelli farmhouse roof springs multiple leaks. The cost to fix it is $2,000, exactly how much Rusty's parents saved to pay for their trip home. Stung by the unfairness of the situation, Rusty watches as his parents' travel budget is diverted to provide the new roof; now there's no telling when he'll see them again. This is shaping up to be a lousy Christmas.
Most kids at school are stoked for the holiday party, but there's some question how it should be run. Jane Fox is Jewish; should the class hold a Hanukkah party? What about Michael Finn, who loves Christmas but also wants to engage with Kwanzaa's cultural aspects? Kids from various ethnicities have their own Christmas traditions, so Mr. Carson, the teacher, lists every idea for the party and has the students vote. Surely there's a way to incorporate elements of everyone's favored holiday. Party or no party, Rusty is jaded about his parents not coming home, and some kids are disappointed they won't be receiving the one special gift they asked for. What good is a school party if Christmas morning is a letdown? For Rusty, a solution to his dilemma occurs to him out of the blue: he can sell the samurai sword his parents once brought him as a gift. Rusty will be sad to lose it, but he'd rather see his parents on Christmas. Would Mr. Snow at the local museum purchase the sword from Rusty even without his parents' permission? If not, how can Christmas be anything but a failure? With the help of some friends, Rusty may experience a happy holiday after all, and might also catch his first-ever glimpse of snowfall since moving to Appleville, New Jersey from California. Things have a way of working out for the kids of Rusty's neighborhood.
The Best Present Ever rotely follows multiculturalism trends of 1980s and '90s Christmas entertainment, but it's a charming book with likable characters. The thirty-nine kids of Cortland, Baldwin, and Spy Streets vary widely in age but honestly care about each other: Fizz Eddie Fox is glad to accompany Rusty to the museum when the younger boy asks, and Rusty quells the temptation to inform Mary Kate Adams about the big secret gift from her parents, knowing her surprise will be that much more wonderful Christmas Day. I might consider rating The Best Present Ever two and a half stars; it's a slight improvement over the first book, The Green Ghost of Appleville. If you like Patricia Reilly Giff's various Polk Street Kids series, or Marcia Leonard's The Kids on Bus Five, you'll have fun with Jean Marzollo's 39 Kids on the Block.
October 6, 2020
Sometimes I like to read children's books...
January 20, 2021
A nice Christmas time book...enjoyed getting to know the kids better c:
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews