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The Report Card
A fifth-grade genius turns the spotlight on grades - good and bad - in this novel from Andrew Clements, the author of Frindle.
Nora Rose Rowley is a genius, but don't tell anyone. She's managed to make it to the fifth grade without anyone figuring out that she's not just an ordinary kid, and she wants to keep it that way.
But then Nora gets fed up with the importance everyone attaches to test scores and grades, and she purposely brings home a terrible report card just to prove a point. Suddenly the attention she's successfully avoided all her life is focused on her, and her secret is out. And that's when things start to get really complicated....
Nora Rose Rowley is a genius, but don't tell anyone. She's managed to make it to the fifth grade without anyone figuring out that she's not just an ordinary kid, and she wants to keep it that way.
But then Nora gets fed up with the importance everyone attaches to test scores and grades, and she purposely brings home a terrible report card just to prove a point. Suddenly the attention she's successfully avoided all her life is focused on her, and her secret is out. And that's when things start to get really complicated....
173 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Andrew Clements
173 books2,032 followersI was born in Camden, New Jersey in 1949 and lived in Oaklyn and Cherry Hill until the middle of sixth grade. Then we moved to Springfield, Illinois. My parents were avid readers and they gave that love of books and reading to me and to all my brothers and sisters. I didn’t think about being a writer at all back then, but I did love to read. I'm certain there's a link between reading good books and becoming a writer. I don't know a single writer who wasn’t a reader first.
Before moving to Illinois, and even afterwards, our family spent summers at a cabin on a lake in Maine. There was no TV there, no phone, no doorbell—and email wasn’t even invented. All day there was time to swim and fish and mess around outside, and every night, there was time to read. I know those quiet summers helped me begin to think like a writer.
During my senior year at Springfield High School my English teacher handed back a poem I’d written. Two things were amazing about that paper. First, I’d gotten an A—a rare event in this teacher’s class. And she’d also written in large, scrawly red writing, “Andrew—this poem is so funny. This should be published!”
That praise sent me off to Northwestern University feeling like I was a pretty good writer, and occasionally professors there also encouraged me and complimented the essays I was required to write as a literature major. But I didn’t write much on my own—just some poetry now and then. I learned to play guitar and began writing songs, but again, only when I felt like it. Writing felt like hard work—something that’s still true today.
After the songwriting came my first job in publishing. I worked for a small publisher who specialized in how-to books, the kind of books that have photos with informative captions below each one. The book in which my name first appeared in print is called A Country Christmas Treasury. I’d built a number of the projects featured in the book, and I was listed as one of the “craftspeople”on the acknowlegements page, in tiny, tiny type.
In 1990 I began trying to write a story about a boy who makes up a new word. That book eventually became my first novel, Frindle, published in 1996, and you can read the whole story of how it developed on another web site, frindle.com. Frindle became popular, more popular than any of my books before or since—at least so far. And it had the eventual effect of turning me into a full-time writer.
I’ve learned that I need time and a quiet place to think and write. These days, I spend a lot of my time sitting in a small shed about seventy feet from my back door at our home in Massachusetts. There’s a woodstove in there for the cold winters, and an air conditioner for the hot summers. There’s a desk and chair, and I carry a laptop computer back and forth. But there’s no TV, no phone, no doorbell, no email. And the woodstove and the pine board walls make the place smell just like that cabin in Maine where I spent my earliest summers.
Sometimes kids ask how I've been able to write so many books. The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is a good lesson, I think. You don't have to do everything at once. You don't have to know how every story is going to end. You just have to take that next step, look for that next idea, write that next word. And growing up, it's the same way. We just have to go to that next class, read that next chapter, help that next person. You simply have to do that next good thing, and before you know it, you're living a good life.
Before moving to Illinois, and even afterwards, our family spent summers at a cabin on a lake in Maine. There was no TV there, no phone, no doorbell—and email wasn’t even invented. All day there was time to swim and fish and mess around outside, and every night, there was time to read. I know those quiet summers helped me begin to think like a writer.
During my senior year at Springfield High School my English teacher handed back a poem I’d written. Two things were amazing about that paper. First, I’d gotten an A—a rare event in this teacher’s class. And she’d also written in large, scrawly red writing, “Andrew—this poem is so funny. This should be published!”
That praise sent me off to Northwestern University feeling like I was a pretty good writer, and occasionally professors there also encouraged me and complimented the essays I was required to write as a literature major. But I didn’t write much on my own—just some poetry now and then. I learned to play guitar and began writing songs, but again, only when I felt like it. Writing felt like hard work—something that’s still true today.
After the songwriting came my first job in publishing. I worked for a small publisher who specialized in how-to books, the kind of books that have photos with informative captions below each one. The book in which my name first appeared in print is called A Country Christmas Treasury. I’d built a number of the projects featured in the book, and I was listed as one of the “craftspeople”on the acknowlegements page, in tiny, tiny type.
In 1990 I began trying to write a story about a boy who makes up a new word. That book eventually became my first novel, Frindle, published in 1996, and you can read the whole story of how it developed on another web site, frindle.com. Frindle became popular, more popular than any of my books before or since—at least so far. And it had the eventual effect of turning me into a full-time writer.
I’ve learned that I need time and a quiet place to think and write. These days, I spend a lot of my time sitting in a small shed about seventy feet from my back door at our home in Massachusetts. There’s a woodstove in there for the cold winters, and an air conditioner for the hot summers. There’s a desk and chair, and I carry a laptop computer back and forth. But there’s no TV, no phone, no doorbell, no email. And the woodstove and the pine board walls make the place smell just like that cabin in Maine where I spent my earliest summers.
Sometimes kids ask how I've been able to write so many books. The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is a good lesson, I think. You don't have to do everything at once. You don't have to know how every story is going to end. You just have to take that next step, look for that next idea, write that next word. And growing up, it's the same way. We just have to go to that next class, read that next chapter, help that next person. You simply have to do that next good thing, and before you know it, you're living a good life.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 899 reviews
November 29, 2011
Back when I worked at the Public Library, I inherited a stack of Advance Reviewer copies. This was one of them, but I didn't notice any glaring typos like many Advanced books contain. I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, I applaud the pointing out that we can put too much emphasis on grades, and that it's not always the best thing for kids. On the other hand, I'm a little disturbed that the main character's (a 5th grade girl sporting a 200 IQ) goal in life is to be normal and not stand out.
The book perpetuates a myth that all "advanced" students are snobs and/or freaks, and that applying yourself and being studious means you have no life outside the classroom. I don't think that's what the author was trying to do, but that's what I took from it because that's how the main character saw things. I can sympathize with the main character's desire not to go into advanced classes or skip grades, and instead stay with friends her own age. But I don't like the message that smart kids should dumb themselves down so they can "fit in".
I do get that character point of view isn't necessarily author point of view. It just bugged me...now it may bug me, because I always wanted what the main character was trying to avoid. I really wanted to a skip grade(s) and graduate early, and everyone fought me on it. Not because I didn't have the grades or smarts to do it, but because they worried I wouldn't develope right socially...so I felt stifled and I never did fit in with kids in my own grade.
I've met kids who were allowed or encouraged to advance as their academic talents let them, and most of them were pretty happy with it. It should be a mutual decision between the parents and student, and I think that's what the book was trying to get at. But I think the message may have gotten muddled.
The book perpetuates a myth that all "advanced" students are snobs and/or freaks, and that applying yourself and being studious means you have no life outside the classroom. I don't think that's what the author was trying to do, but that's what I took from it because that's how the main character saw things. I can sympathize with the main character's desire not to go into advanced classes or skip grades, and instead stay with friends her own age. But I don't like the message that smart kids should dumb themselves down so they can "fit in".
I do get that character point of view isn't necessarily author point of view. It just bugged me...now it may bug me, because I always wanted what the main character was trying to avoid. I really wanted to a skip grade(s) and graduate early, and everyone fought me on it. Not because I didn't have the grades or smarts to do it, but because they worried I wouldn't develope right socially...so I felt stifled and I never did fit in with kids in my own grade.
I've met kids who were allowed or encouraged to advance as their academic talents let them, and most of them were pretty happy with it. It should be a mutual decision between the parents and student, and I think that's what the book was trying to get at. But I think the message may have gotten muddled.
January 29, 2009
I enjoyed this book, but it seemed a bit more unlikely than Frindleand No Talking. Clements deals in this book with the emphasis on testing in schools and how it affects students' perceptions of themselves and others. It's humorous, it held my interest, and it dealt with an important idea, but I still found it hard to believe any students would go as far as Nora and Stephen did in their rebellion.
Although a genius might see the fallacy in taking testing results too seriously, I doubt if Nora would care so little about her future to go as far as she did in deliberately getting almost all D's and getting standardized test scores in the average range just to fit in. She seemed convinced it wouldn't matter because she was so smart she could just show them how smart she was when it became important.
Once again Andrews pits the students against the teachers in a perceived rebellion, though their real grievance is not with the teachers, who are really on the same side, as with the system. When the students saw they and the teachers really felt the same way and they were all fighting against a system they could not control, they stopped the rebellion.
Although a genius might see the fallacy in taking testing results too seriously, I doubt if Nora would care so little about her future to go as far as she did in deliberately getting almost all D's and getting standardized test scores in the average range just to fit in. She seemed convinced it wouldn't matter because she was so smart she could just show them how smart she was when it became important.
Once again Andrews pits the students against the teachers in a perceived rebellion, though their real grievance is not with the teachers, who are really on the same side, as with the system. When the students saw they and the teachers really felt the same way and they were all fighting against a system they could not control, they stopped the rebellion.
August 17, 2015
The amazing book The Report Card was written by the world's wellknown author Andrew Clements. The Report Card is about a very smart girl who pretends to be unclever and always tries to get bad grades. Nora Rosa Rowley is actually a genius that learned how to read alone at the age of two. She always pretended to be dumb because she thought that grades didn't matter. She was trying to convince people to follow her path and they did. The strangest part about the book was that Nora was trying to be an average student instead of a high standard student, she didn't want to go to the school's gifted program. The bad part about the book was that Nora could've been suspended because Nora's enemmy told the principal that Nora was persuading people to support her. The good part was that Nora showed her talent after meeting the principal and she joined the gifted and talented program. I would recommand this book to smart students that don't work hard to show them that pretending will not lead them anywhere and that they have to work to have a path.
August 12, 2007
Clements has done it again! I love this book, and I love how he has created these great stories with kids making a difference. My students love these books as well! 06/30/2006
May 25, 2014
Clements is a great youth storyteller. I have found his stories to be humorous and thought provoking. In this tale he questions state testing, the importance that as an American society we put on grades and testing and the special classes for the "smart" or "gifted and talented" kids (and how they got in there in the first place-tests!). He suggests that testing puts undue pressure on kids and doesn't truly reflect the intelligence, capabilities or knowledge of those being tested. In regards to the AL (accelerated learning)/gifted and talented classes he says that those kids not only think a lot of themselves and brag about how smart they are to other kids and/or put them down, but it also creates divisions between the kids at school; those who are smart, those who are average and those who are dumb. I laughed and was also very thoughtful at times about what he wrote.
I confirm that all these things are true, as I see those practices at work on kids and adults in our school system today. That is why I steadfastly refuse to put my kids in AL. They don't need to be in an "elitist" group of kids, segregated from the rest of their peers because of some test they took that said they were "smart". It's not necessary. They also don't need more homework than they currently have. It's hard to put my foot down because as a society we are so engrained to be the best of the best, so there is this little nagging fear in the back of a parents mind, "but if I don't, then will they succeed in life"? My husband and I keep telling ourselves that yes, they will be just fine.
Kids need to have time to be kids. When do they get time to do that with all the other demands we parents and society put upon them? When do they have time to build forts, make smoke bombs, roam the hills with their buddies, participate in their own sand lot games, play with a chemistry set and make things boil and bubble. They don't because we are too busy filling their lives with activities and homework.
I learned a lot about life by playing in the neighborhood with my friends. We did all those things and I look back on my childhood with fond memories. I don't think my kids are going to have as much of an idyllic childhood to remember as I had. All the kids that are 10 yrs and older are so involved with school, church activities and super leagues that rarely can anyone my oldest son knows, play. Pretty sad. Then it leaves a parent questioning, well great, now what? I have told him he can only play the recreational sports and now he has no one to hang out with because all his neighborhood friends are gone all the time playing sports with their super leagues. It's frustrating for parents and kids.
I hope that Clements writes a book on how ridiculously competitive parents are when it comes to sports. Is it really necessary for little kids to have ball practice 5 times a week and games two times a week? Really? Do they need that kind of structure and pressure put on them? I have parents say to me, "Well, it's better they're doing that or they would spend all their time playing video games". I say, "Try being a parent". Say no. Take the xbox away. Take the kindle's away. Kick them outside with some water. Set a good example and be active yourself. Maybe parents spend too much time with their faces in the screen themselves?
That's what Clement's books do-make you think. It also gets me on my soap box for a minute. I highly suggest reading his books. Both myself and my 10 yr old son have really enjoyed his stories.
I confirm that all these things are true, as I see those practices at work on kids and adults in our school system today. That is why I steadfastly refuse to put my kids in AL. They don't need to be in an "elitist" group of kids, segregated from the rest of their peers because of some test they took that said they were "smart". It's not necessary. They also don't need more homework than they currently have. It's hard to put my foot down because as a society we are so engrained to be the best of the best, so there is this little nagging fear in the back of a parents mind, "but if I don't, then will they succeed in life"? My husband and I keep telling ourselves that yes, they will be just fine.
Kids need to have time to be kids. When do they get time to do that with all the other demands we parents and society put upon them? When do they have time to build forts, make smoke bombs, roam the hills with their buddies, participate in their own sand lot games, play with a chemistry set and make things boil and bubble. They don't because we are too busy filling their lives with activities and homework.
I learned a lot about life by playing in the neighborhood with my friends. We did all those things and I look back on my childhood with fond memories. I don't think my kids are going to have as much of an idyllic childhood to remember as I had. All the kids that are 10 yrs and older are so involved with school, church activities and super leagues that rarely can anyone my oldest son knows, play. Pretty sad. Then it leaves a parent questioning, well great, now what? I have told him he can only play the recreational sports and now he has no one to hang out with because all his neighborhood friends are gone all the time playing sports with their super leagues. It's frustrating for parents and kids.
I hope that Clements writes a book on how ridiculously competitive parents are when it comes to sports. Is it really necessary for little kids to have ball practice 5 times a week and games two times a week? Really? Do they need that kind of structure and pressure put on them? I have parents say to me, "Well, it's better they're doing that or they would spend all their time playing video games". I say, "Try being a parent". Say no. Take the xbox away. Take the kindle's away. Kick them outside with some water. Set a good example and be active yourself. Maybe parents spend too much time with their faces in the screen themselves?
That's what Clement's books do-make you think. It also gets me on my soap box for a minute. I highly suggest reading his books. Both myself and my 10 yr old son have really enjoyed his stories.
November 5, 2008
I liked this book a lot at first, but it never lived up to the hype of the first 50 pages (I'm guessing on pages, since I actually listened to it). I was expecting more of a revolution, more of a fallout, but that's probably just me and my issues with authority. It ended up being a little to didactic for me, though.
October 15, 2014
The book The Report Card was an okay book. It was an okay book because when I got it I thought it was going to about someone getting bad grades all the time.
This book takes place at Nora's school and her house. Nora is a girl that is very intelligent at home and at school, but at school she decides to make a lot of bad choices that could ruin her grades. She decides to get bad grades on every one of her subjects to see how big of a deal it is to get bad grades and who will care most about her grades.
This book is filled with a lot of drama. The drama mostly comes in where Nora's parents see her grades. When they see her grades they get really mad because of what they saw only bad grades.
I would recommend this book because it talks about how people could get horrible grades but in reality they are very intelligent.
This book takes place at Nora's school and her house. Nora is a girl that is very intelligent at home and at school, but at school she decides to make a lot of bad choices that could ruin her grades. She decides to get bad grades on every one of her subjects to see how big of a deal it is to get bad grades and who will care most about her grades.
This book is filled with a lot of drama. The drama mostly comes in where Nora's parents see her grades. When they see her grades they get really mad because of what they saw only bad grades.
I would recommend this book because it talks about how people could get horrible grades but in reality they are very intelligent.
November 1, 2016
I thought the Report Card was a really good book. After reading Frindle, by Andrew Clements, the same author as The Report Card, I had really enjoyed it, and I wanted to read another book by Andrew Clements because his writing is always rich with detail, and very interesting. It always makes you want to turn to the next page, and read what happens next. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes realistic fiction
January 5, 2010
This book is about a girl named Nora who purposly gets bad grades to make people think she is not smart.
Not very good it doesnt have any real action just talking very boring.
This book is good for people or don't like suspenseful books.
Not very good it doesnt have any real action just talking very boring.
This book is good for people or don't like suspenseful books.
May 29, 2022
Liked this book
January 6, 2013
This story keys into my own personal bugbear: standardized testing. It's about more than that, but the standardized testing is what has annoyed me since I was a kid and all the way up to college. It's even worse now, thanks to No Child Left a Chance to Learn.
Anyway, the heroine of this story is necessarily a genius so that testing and grades are pretty much meaningless to her. She has feigned normality with mathematical cunning in order to not be the focus of attention. She has completely fooled her family, teachers, and friends.
She sees what testing has done to her best friend Stephen and so embarks on a poorly thought-out quest (you might be smart as far as facts and numbers, but your brain doesn't finish development until your early mid-20s when you can see consequences down the line) to make the school system and her parents see that the stress on test scores and grades actually does the opposite of what it is meant to do: promote learning.
Nora conscientiously gets D's on her report card (except for Spelling, where she must have miscalculated). While her parents are appalled and an emergency meeting is held with all Nora's teachers as well as her parents there, Nora has found at least one adult to be on her side: Mrs. Byrne, the school librarian - someone who is annoyed that she now has to grade students on library skills, the one place students used to be safe from being categorized.
Once her friend Stephen understands what she was doing, he embarks on the mission as well - and then all heck breaks loose.
The book, being a children's novel, is facile and ends too abruptly. But it still made me cry - once when I understood her mission ... and then at the end. Clements unleashes a can of worms about teaching versus testing but, because it's for kids, doesn't bother to give us any solutions.
Nora is also caught in the turmoil of fifth grade when it suddenly seems to be more important to her best friend Stephen that he be "one of the boys" - it being no longer cool to have a friend who's a girl. What a horrible age! There's only so much of this that Clements can handle in a book of this size and for this demographic. I think it's more important that adults read this book.
Anyway, the heroine of this story is necessarily a genius so that testing and grades are pretty much meaningless to her. She has feigned normality with mathematical cunning in order to not be the focus of attention. She has completely fooled her family, teachers, and friends.
She sees what testing has done to her best friend Stephen and so embarks on a poorly thought-out quest (you might be smart as far as facts and numbers, but your brain doesn't finish development until your early mid-20s when you can see consequences down the line) to make the school system and her parents see that the stress on test scores and grades actually does the opposite of what it is meant to do: promote learning.
Nora conscientiously gets D's on her report card (except for Spelling, where she must have miscalculated). While her parents are appalled and an emergency meeting is held with all Nora's teachers as well as her parents there, Nora has found at least one adult to be on her side: Mrs. Byrne, the school librarian - someone who is annoyed that she now has to grade students on library skills, the one place students used to be safe from being categorized.
Once her friend Stephen understands what she was doing, he embarks on the mission as well - and then all heck breaks loose.
The book, being a children's novel, is facile and ends too abruptly. But it still made me cry - once when I understood her mission ... and then at the end. Clements unleashes a can of worms about teaching versus testing but, because it's for kids, doesn't bother to give us any solutions.
Nora is also caught in the turmoil of fifth grade when it suddenly seems to be more important to her best friend Stephen that he be "one of the boys" - it being no longer cool to have a friend who's a girl. What a horrible age! There's only so much of this that Clements can handle in a book of this size and for this demographic. I think it's more important that adults read this book.
April 7, 2016
I have tried to read this book so many times in middle school and never got past the first chapter. The problem wasn't that it was boring, it was just strange to me. Now that I'm a sophomore in highschool I have finally finished the book...and I don't know what to think.
At the beginning of thr book the main character annoyed me for some reason, she was hurting her family and didn't see that. All she cared about was proving that grades don't matter, well she is In 5th grade, but she was still annoying.
I also listened to the auto version which probably didn't help at all, because her voice annoyed me and sounded like she was wining all the time.
I like the thought that she was trying to help her best friend not care about grades, because grades she says don't matter...and if I'm being completely honest (now that I'm in highschool) I don't think grades matter in elementary and middle school. In highschool you need good grades to get into college, and then good in college to get a job.
Life is competitive, and grades show you that at a younger age how competitive it is. Sometimes the only conversations that comes up between people in school is "So what is your grade" and we compare, we can't help it.
I'm mostly a B student and every once and I while I get an A, but there's always that students that does worse than me (either they don't try or they just have trouble in certain subjects) and always the student that does something much better, and take way more "smarter" classes than me, such as AP and GT classes. Everyone's different, and that is completely okay.
What I liked about this book is that she starts to embrace the fact that she's smart...but then she uses it in a bad way...and it went Bach down again. This time she wasn't thinking about how the teachers would feel.
So now I'm back to the reason that the main character extremely frusterated me, but then again I don't have parents like hers...so I can understand. They are way over the top, but parents are like that too.
When I got to the end of the book I liked the main character a lot more, and when the book ended I was asking myself "That's it?" And I think that's a good thing to interpret what happened after the end. My emotions are everywhere.
At the beginning of thr book the main character annoyed me for some reason, she was hurting her family and didn't see that. All she cared about was proving that grades don't matter, well she is In 5th grade, but she was still annoying.
I also listened to the auto version which probably didn't help at all, because her voice annoyed me and sounded like she was wining all the time.
I like the thought that she was trying to help her best friend not care about grades, because grades she says don't matter...and if I'm being completely honest (now that I'm in highschool) I don't think grades matter in elementary and middle school. In highschool you need good grades to get into college, and then good in college to get a job.
Life is competitive, and grades show you that at a younger age how competitive it is. Sometimes the only conversations that comes up between people in school is "So what is your grade" and we compare, we can't help it.
I'm mostly a B student and every once and I while I get an A, but there's always that students that does worse than me (either they don't try or they just have trouble in certain subjects) and always the student that does something much better, and take way more "smarter" classes than me, such as AP and GT classes. Everyone's different, and that is completely okay.
What I liked about this book is that she starts to embrace the fact that she's smart...but then she uses it in a bad way...and it went Bach down again. This time she wasn't thinking about how the teachers would feel.
So now I'm back to the reason that the main character extremely frusterated me, but then again I don't have parents like hers...so I can understand. They are way over the top, but parents are like that too.
When I got to the end of the book I liked the main character a lot more, and when the book ended I was asking myself "That's it?" And I think that's a good thing to interpret what happened after the end. My emotions are everywhere.
November 12, 2009
This book was abut a little girl who got 4d and 1c but she just wanted to get all d's you know what i don't wat to be her because i whould want to get all A's and every one else whould want to to am i right.i loved this book because it had alot of information that you need toknow so read this book it is realy good.You know that Andrew Clements makes the best books every sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo please read this book it is realy good.
[charters:] the little girl]
[setting:] at the class room getting her report card
[charters:] the little girl]
[setting:] at the class room getting her report card
August 5, 2007
Andrew Clements can do no wrong in the "school fiction" category. This one deals with the pressure facing kids over testing. Timely and funny...he hits the spot!
October 8, 2007
I was frustrated with the girl's idea that she should just do mediocre work so she could be "normal". I thought she should have strived to do her best and shine.
July 26, 2021
3.5 rounded up
Good story exploring how much importance we now place on the results of standard testing and effect it has.
Good story exploring how much importance we now place on the results of standard testing and effect it has.
July 10, 2008
I asked my oldest daughter what she was reading last night and she handed me Andrew Clement's The Report Card. "Why don't you read it Daddy?" Who could resist? So I dove into this story of Nora, a genius who works hard to not let anyone at home or school know about it (and thus constrain her in gifted classes or schools), her friend Stephen, of modest school achievement, and school-wide angst over grades and test taking. The main characters, and the librarian Nora befriends during the course of the book, are thoughtful and likable, and the idea of students protesting over grades and testing is a wonderful plot device. But the books lacks the full plot development and resolution of Clement's classics like The Landry News (which made my kids start writing their own newspaper) or Frindle. Part of the problem is that little can be done to change grades and testing in public schools without more change than the book could deliver, but that is a comment for another time.
October 30, 2012
This book is undeniably one of the most relatable books I have ever read in my life.
I come from a gifted program where grades are EVERYTHING. I was in a pullout program when I was younger for my smarts. The social environment at my school is toxic due to these gifted classes.
Possibly the only differences between Nora and I are the fact that I would never hide my smarts from anybody, and she is about ten times as smart as me.
I wish I had the courage to do something like this, and yet I'm glad I don't due to the complete unreality of it ever turning out like it does here.
I love Clements and I love his readings, they are perfect for his audience and anybody in the world looking for a cute book to distract them for a while or entertain them to their fancies.
I come from a gifted program where grades are EVERYTHING. I was in a pullout program when I was younger for my smarts. The social environment at my school is toxic due to these gifted classes.
Possibly the only differences between Nora and I are the fact that I would never hide my smarts from anybody, and she is about ten times as smart as me.
I wish I had the courage to do something like this, and yet I'm glad I don't due to the complete unreality of it ever turning out like it does here.
I love Clements and I love his readings, they are perfect for his audience and anybody in the world looking for a cute book to distract them for a while or entertain them to their fancies.
May 23, 2016
I think this book was really fun to read. My favorite part was when Cora at the end of the book started not acting like she was slow and started doing better in her classes. The part I didn't like was when her sister always bragged to Cora about her report card because Cora got really mad when she bragged about them. I would recommend this book to Jenefer because she loves to read fun books and she will bring a good book with her almost everywhere to read it and I think that really amazing.
May 6, 2016
This book is about Nora Rose Rowley being a genius, but she doesn't want to tell anyone. She's managed to make it to the 5th grade without anyone finding out her little secret and she wants to keep it that way. I would recommend this book to my little brother, Alex. My brother loves chapter book. Even though he is in 1st grade.
April 27, 2015
This book was very good. You felt like you were right next to the character threw out the story. This book is good for any fourth grader because that is the same age of the main character in the story. Thanks
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June 11, 2015I really like this book because it is really funny. My favorite character is Nora because she is really friendly and kind. My favorite part of the book is when Nora and her friend are so confused on what her teacher told her and she didn't understand what he said.
February 22, 2016
I thought that the book was very interesting and fun to read. One thing that I liked was how he told the story from the point of view of the girl in the story. If you like funny and easy to read books then this would be a good choice for you.
July 14, 2016
Ellie earned this book from the LQ Library summer reading program..krb 6/25/16
Another great book from Andrew Clements, we liked this almost as much as Frindle. Should school testing change the way people treat you or the way you see yourself?...krb 7/14/16
Another great book from Andrew Clements, we liked this almost as much as Frindle. Should school testing change the way people treat you or the way you see yourself?...krb 7/14/16
September 14, 2007
The girl is different. but i want tell you how or u will not read it. will u? anywayz........she wants bad grades instead of good grades, but i will not tell u why!
March 25, 2015
This was a good book because the girl she got allot of bad grades but then one of her friends said that i will help you make your grades better and it was a really good book.
June 11, 2015
I like this book because I like how they put the girls report card all d's and only one c that makes me think that I need to get a good report card
March 29, 2016
It was good.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 31, 2023
You know when you immediately see a book and know you have to read it. That was the case when I saw this book. I have always loved to read middle grade books, even now as an adult, because it can give you a sense of comfort. Middle grade is known for being so versatile, fantasy, time travel, friendship, and in this story, the pressures of doing good in school.
Our protagonist, Nora Rose Rowley, is in the fifth grade, and she is a genius. For some reason, she has managed to keep this fact hidden from her friends, teachers, and even her parents. When it's time to take her seriously bad report card home, she feels like she has something to prove. Nora doesn't understand why grades and test scores should define a students outcome. That being said, she plots a plan with her best friend to bring this to light. Unfortunately, what she doesn't anticipate is how complicated her seemingly simple plan got.
The reason why I loved this book so much was because it has such a deeper meaning when you finish it. It was interesting to read from the perspective of a prodigy student and how she sees a lot of other students struggle at school. Report card came out in 2004, but it absolutely has a lot of relevant topics for today's generation.
Our protagonist, Nora Rose Rowley, is in the fifth grade, and she is a genius. For some reason, she has managed to keep this fact hidden from her friends, teachers, and even her parents. When it's time to take her seriously bad report card home, she feels like she has something to prove. Nora doesn't understand why grades and test scores should define a students outcome. That being said, she plots a plan with her best friend to bring this to light. Unfortunately, what she doesn't anticipate is how complicated her seemingly simple plan got.
The reason why I loved this book so much was because it has such a deeper meaning when you finish it. It was interesting to read from the perspective of a prodigy student and how she sees a lot of other students struggle at school. Report card came out in 2004, but it absolutely has a lot of relevant topics for today's generation.
December 31, 2019
Fifth grader Nora Rose Rowley is a secret supergenius. She could do a jigsaw at two and read at three, and now in middle school does her own college level learning online while maintaining the facade of an average student. With an intense distaste for being in the spotlight, she has figured out how to mimic the other students and keep her skills to herself, even from her own parents. Her best friend Stephen isn't dumb but doesn't do well on standardized tests, and Nora feels this gives him an unfair label, the same way the tests make certain students feel superior just because they do well. So as a form of protests, she gets all Ds on her first report card of the quarter. Her grade-obsessed parents flip out, and soon she's involved in meetings with the principal, the counselor, even a district superintendent. When Stephen rallies the rest of the fifth grade to join the protest, Nora is facing a lot more scrutiny than she ever thought possible.
I read this to my class as an example of how characters grow and change. Nora is an interesting and very sympathetic character. She speaks honestly about herself and makes broad pronouncements about what friends do for one another. The plot meanders a bit near the middle, when Nora has a big plan but then starts having second thoughts. And then it all sort of peters out when Nora decides... that most kids don't care about grades? This seems like an anticlimax. The book does cast a critical light on the prevalence of and reliance on standardized tests, and I'm glad that Clements included the idea that many teachers are as wary of these tests as kids are. However, I'm not entirely sure that I approve of the idea of a near-superhumanly brilliant fifth grader being allowed to decide that her goal in life is to avoid gifted classes, get a regular job, and do nothing special with her intelligence.
I read this to my class as an example of how characters grow and change. Nora is an interesting and very sympathetic character. She speaks honestly about herself and makes broad pronouncements about what friends do for one another. The plot meanders a bit near the middle, when Nora has a big plan but then starts having second thoughts. And then it all sort of peters out when Nora decides... that most kids don't care about grades? This seems like an anticlimax. The book does cast a critical light on the prevalence of and reliance on standardized tests, and I'm glad that Clements included the idea that many teachers are as wary of these tests as kids are. However, I'm not entirely sure that I approve of the idea of a near-superhumanly brilliant fifth grader being allowed to decide that her goal in life is to avoid gifted classes, get a regular job, and do nothing special with her intelligence.
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