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Third Grade #1
I Was a Third Grade Science Project
It sure is handy having Brian the Brain for a best friend—how else would Josh have a shot at first prize in the science fair and winning tickets to Wonderland Lake? But when Brian plans to hypnotize his dog, Arfie, into thinking he’s a cat, Josh knows he can say goodbye to Wonderland Lake—this scheme will never work. The next thing he knows, Josh is climbing trees and craving raw fish sandwiches. What’s going on? Will the real science project please meow?
112 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
6 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
About the author
Mary Jane Auch
48 books70 followersMary Jane Auch also writes as MJ Auch.
The thought of becoming a writer never occurred to MJ Auch as a child. Her only literary efforts in those days were the plays which she and her girlfriend, Noreen, wrote for their marionettes. They produced these extravaganzas in Noreen’s garage and organized the neighborhood boys into a sales force to sell tickets and refreshments.
Summer visits to both of MJ’s grandmothers led to her fascination with chickens. One grandmother had a small backyard flock and the other grandmother and two bachelor uncles had a large farm that supplied eggs to half of Long Island. MJ learned that a flock of chickens had almost the same range of personalities that could be found in a classroom, from the quiet, shy chicken to the big bully.
MJ loved books and read constantly. She wrote stories, drawn in comic book style with speech balloons for the dialog. Her interest in drawing continued through high school, and she went on to become an art major at Skidmore College. After graduation, MJ headed for New York City to seek fame and fortune, but after a year of designing prints for men's pajamas, she decided she wanted to do something more meaningful with her life. She enrolled in the Occupational Therapy program at Columbia University, which led to some wonderful years of working in a children's hospital near Hartford, Connecticut.
On a brief stop home to visit her parents before transferring to a new job in Denver, she met Herm Auch, a graphic artist and editorial cartoonist for the Rochester newspaper. It was love at first sight, and MJ never made it to Denver. They were married in 1967 and within a few years had produced a daughter, Katrin and a son, Ian. They moved from the city to a small farm, complete with chickens, ducks, and geese. Armed with a huge collection of Mother Earth News and absolutely no practical experience, they tackled farm life with gusto, gaining much comedy material for books MJ’s future books.
As the children grew older, MJ began to look for work in her original field of art. Like Jenna's mother in Mom Is Dating Weird Wayne, she had a brief stint as a “zit zapper” at a school picture factory. Then she started illustrating for Pennywhistle Press, a national children's newspaper, and this sparked her interest in illustrating children’s books.
In the summer of 1984, MJ took a week-long children's writing conference on Cape Cod. She tried to write a picture book manuscript to take to the conference, but instead found herself writing a middle-grade novel. When her instructor, Natalie Babbitt, told of starting out as an artist and finding she could paint better pictures with words, something clicked. MJ finally knew that she wanted to a writer.
She started sending manuscripts to publishers, writing four full-length novels before she sold the first one. Then she sold a second book to another publisher that same week. It had taken two years and thirteen rejections, but MJ had finally reached her goal!mShe continued writing books for older kids and abandoned her dream of illustrating for a while. Then, after nine books, she wrote and illustrated The Easter Egg Farm. This set in motion a series of picture books featuring poultry involved in the arts.
The Auchs have now become a family of artists. Their children are grown and pursuing art careers of their own. Kat, a graphic artist, is now working as Associate Art Director for Scrapbook Answers Magazine in San Francisco. Ian has been a graphic artist and 3-D animator and is now Assistant New Media Editor for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper. Ian is also a metal artist and created the chicken-sized beauty parlor chair for [b:Beauty and the Beaks|1918127|Beaut
The thought of becoming a writer never occurred to MJ Auch as a child. Her only literary efforts in those days were the plays which she and her girlfriend, Noreen, wrote for their marionettes. They produced these extravaganzas in Noreen’s garage and organized the neighborhood boys into a sales force to sell tickets and refreshments.
Summer visits to both of MJ’s grandmothers led to her fascination with chickens. One grandmother had a small backyard flock and the other grandmother and two bachelor uncles had a large farm that supplied eggs to half of Long Island. MJ learned that a flock of chickens had almost the same range of personalities that could be found in a classroom, from the quiet, shy chicken to the big bully.
MJ loved books and read constantly. She wrote stories, drawn in comic book style with speech balloons for the dialog. Her interest in drawing continued through high school, and she went on to become an art major at Skidmore College. After graduation, MJ headed for New York City to seek fame and fortune, but after a year of designing prints for men's pajamas, she decided she wanted to do something more meaningful with her life. She enrolled in the Occupational Therapy program at Columbia University, which led to some wonderful years of working in a children's hospital near Hartford, Connecticut.
On a brief stop home to visit her parents before transferring to a new job in Denver, she met Herm Auch, a graphic artist and editorial cartoonist for the Rochester newspaper. It was love at first sight, and MJ never made it to Denver. They were married in 1967 and within a few years had produced a daughter, Katrin and a son, Ian. They moved from the city to a small farm, complete with chickens, ducks, and geese. Armed with a huge collection of Mother Earth News and absolutely no practical experience, they tackled farm life with gusto, gaining much comedy material for books MJ’s future books.
As the children grew older, MJ began to look for work in her original field of art. Like Jenna's mother in Mom Is Dating Weird Wayne, she had a brief stint as a “zit zapper” at a school picture factory. Then she started illustrating for Pennywhistle Press, a national children's newspaper, and this sparked her interest in illustrating children’s books.
In the summer of 1984, MJ took a week-long children's writing conference on Cape Cod. She tried to write a picture book manuscript to take to the conference, but instead found herself writing a middle-grade novel. When her instructor, Natalie Babbitt, told of starting out as an artist and finding she could paint better pictures with words, something clicked. MJ finally knew that she wanted to a writer.
She started sending manuscripts to publishers, writing four full-length novels before she sold the first one. Then she sold a second book to another publisher that same week. It had taken two years and thirteen rejections, but MJ had finally reached her goal!mShe continued writing books for older kids and abandoned her dream of illustrating for a while. Then, after nine books, she wrote and illustrated The Easter Egg Farm. This set in motion a series of picture books featuring poultry involved in the arts.
The Auchs have now become a family of artists. Their children are grown and pursuing art careers of their own. Kat, a graphic artist, is now working as Associate Art Director for Scrapbook Answers Magazine in San Francisco. Ian has been a graphic artist and 3-D animator and is now Assistant New Media Editor for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper. Ian is also a metal artist and created the chicken-sized beauty parlor chair for [b:Beauty and the Beaks|1918127|Beaut
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 14, 2011
In this book Josh and his best friend Brian are required to enter the third grade science fair. Brian is the brains of the operation and takes over the project, which is fine with Josh. Josh isn’t dumb, but he isn’t smart either and his desire the prize given to the winners. The winners will receive tickets to an amazing theme park that Josh would kill to go to. Brian and Josh decide to try something new and unique for their science project. They attempt to hypnotize Brian’s dog, Arful, into thinking he is a cat. In the middle of the project, the two are forced to add a third man to their team, Dougie, known for his lack of intelligence. The three attempt to hypnotize the dog several times, observing the results and effects of each attempt. Unfortunately Josh begins to have strange desires and cravings, and soon, he begins to act like a cat.
June 18, 2008
This book had 2 story lines going: the progress of the boys' science experiment to make a dog think he's a cat, and their struggle to accept the class "dummy" as part of their group. I liked the unexpected twist at the end.
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October 14, 2022Not for me. I did like the sub-story about Dougie, in which Brain and Birdbrain learn to get along with the kid nobody else wanted to partner with. But the main part of the book, the part for kids, was just too silly for me.
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January 5, 2010This book was really for like second graders and was really boring . Thats why I abonded it . But the book was okay . It was just really borning . This was just not a good book for me!
July 1, 2016
Silly, but in the way that I think kids would find really funny.
April 12, 2021
I read this with my son. He didn't love it and neither did I.
December 4, 2020
This the story of some elementary school kids who have to work on a science project. They decide to hypnotize the dog to think it is a cat. This is a fast read and is targeted towards early readers.
January 23, 2018
Cute story that I read aloud to the kids.
February 24, 2020
It was a fun idea, but went on way too long. Brought in too many extraneous things for the young reader (& me) to stay engaged (parents’ emotional interactions, ...). Cannot recommend this book.
March 5, 2013
I Was a Third Grade Science Project by Mary Jane Auch is in the genre of Fantasy/ Science Fiction. It is recommended for kids aged 8 years and older. I was a Third Grade Science Project tells the story of Brian, the smartest boy in class. He gets together with other students, Josh and Dougie. He wants to make his dog, Arful, think and act like a cat. The books describes situations where Brian hypnotizes the dog and he begins acting more like a cat each time. This book would be good for 3rd graders because they can relate to science projects they have to do on their own.
August 9, 2013
This book is about when Brian and his friends are going to try to win first prize in a science project.They're idea is to try to hypnotize Josh's dog Arful into to thinking he is a cat.When the science project show begins and Brian tries to hypnotize Arful, josh starts to act like a cat ,even though they get first prize they still have to hypnotize josh into a person again. Later, they enjoy their first place prize ticket to a theme park.
September 14, 2011
This is a funny book about children trying to hypnotize a dog for a science project. The premise is silly, but entertaining and the illustrations are sparse, but humorous. Our girls attempted to do the same thing to our dog after reading this book, although we soon ended that experiment! We enjoyed reading this book together.
December 8, 2011
Josh does not care about working on the science fair project, and has his friend Brian work on it alone...until they learn that the winners will receive tickets to a theme park. After several attempts of hypnotizing a dog, it beging to affect Josh instead...
August 15, 2013
I read this book twice to two different thrid grade classes. The first group of third grade students laughed along with me but the second classroom was not as enthusiastic. This was an enjoyable read-aloud story for elementary students.
March 23, 2015
I did not care much for the writing in this book. I read it aloud to my class and found myself fumbling over sentences, although I had previously read it to prepare. The kids seemed to like the story - which was overall a cute little tale.
September 25, 2015
Actually, I didn't read all of this, my little son did. He said it was okay. Now he's doing a third grade book report on it. And he's going to read I Was a Third Grade (something else...) it goes right along with this one. Same dog!
December 15, 2010
Just another science project gone wrong book. Not bad, but not unique.
February 12, 2012
Literary Lunch with third graders
February 25, 2013
Guess ya gotta be in third grade to really like it. So-so.
July 25, 2017
This will be a geat book if we end up doing science fair. It is just an okay early chapter book otherwise.
December 19, 2017
I felt the story was a little over before it began.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews