Amber Brown Goes Fourth by Paula Danziger, Tony Ross (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

Amber Brown isn't entirely ready for fourth grade. She has her pens, pencils, new clothes, and new shoes. But the one thing she doesn't have is her best friend, Justin Daniels. Justin has moved away, leaving Amber utterly best friend-less. Amber knows Justin can't be replaced, but she is on the lookout for a new friend. Brandi seems a likely choice—but does Brandi want to choose Amber in return? Will Amber Brown go fourth, and go forth, with a new best friend?

Children's Literature

It is tough, Amber's best friend Justin has moved away and she will be starting fourth grade on her own-with no best friend. Life is full of changes, and now her Mom is dating Max and it looks pretty serious. Amber and Brandi find out that they enjoy each other's company and decided to be friends, maybe even best friends. Amber is not ready to meet Max, but she knows that he is making her Mom happy and the story ends on that note. The fast paced, breezy text is very much on target with today's families. Young girls in the third and fourth grade will understand and sympathize with Amber Brown. 1996 (orig.

School Library Journal

Gr 3-4-In the third entry of this popular series, Amber Brown begins fourth grade without her best friend, Justin, who has moved. Still unhappy over her parents' divorce, she doesn't want to meet the man her mother is seeing. To top it off, instead of going to Justin's house after school, she has to go to Elementary Extension. Determined not to let her problems get her down, she makes a new friend (after a few false starts), participates in a burping contest, and eventually realizes that her mother, too, needs to move on with her life. Reluctant and beginning readers will be drawn in by Danziger's present-tense, staccato style and by the short chapters. Kids coping with problems similar to Amber's will find encouragement, sympathy, and an upbeat way of taking responsibility for solving them. Entertaining and satisfying, this is a first purchase, whether or not the rest of the series is owned.-Connie Parker, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Cleveland, OH

BookList

Amber Brown is back, her voice as funny and vulnerable as ever. She's entering fourth grade in a panic. Her parents are newly divorced; her best friend has moved away. How will she cope? She doesn't win the playground burping contest, but she does make a new friend and begins, very reluctantly, to think about accepting her mother's serious boyfriend. Better than "You Can't Eat Your Chicken Pox, Amber Brown" , this simple chapter book has the immediacy of the first title, "Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon" (1994). Fans will recognize the mundane and the cosmic when Amber Brown goes "forth."

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