• more about #barthedeclements
    TheFormerJuneBronson: Awww, I was away and missed this! These books are among my very favorites. I think I read How Do You Lose... first, and then all the others. Still rea... more »
    hippichx sez PEACE PLEASE: this post and all the comments make me realize what a dork i was growing up... any of you read on the origin of species in fifth grade? i was obsesse... more »
    Betty Bea Getty McClanahan: UGH! Reading this post makes me think of this one book that's driven me crazy for weeks...it's about a girl who starts her first day of high school, a... more »
    Maulleigh: I remember this book! I remember during the sleepover, the mom realizes Elsie's been holding her pants together with safety pins so she offers to take... more »
    bluebears: AHHHHH! I read this like a MILLION times and that was my exact copy and I loved loved loved that cover art. more »
    thisisunclear: OMG this cover, how could I forget?! And the indignity of naming her Elsie! I still remember the smelly egg-salad sandwiches as being her worst charac... more »
    lilad: ! Finally a book I actually had as a child (I think I'm a bit younger than the target audience...) Yay! more »
    kaiwhakamarie: Oh my gawd, I'd forgotten this book completely...until I saw the cover art peeking at me in the corner of my computer screen. I was like, 'I KNOW thos... more »
    f_t_e: GOD, it only gets better in How Do You Lose Those 9th Grade Blues and Seventeen and In Between when Elsie gets to take over as the narrator and is so ... more »
    tart.: Does anyone remember the books about the mean blonde girl with the one crooked bicuspid? I think her name was Tammy, but that seems wrong. There wer... more »
    VeryFancyBunny: That cover is iconic. Man. I remember really liking all the little details on it when I was a kid, and realizing how much you could infer about the ch... more »
    millefleur: I loved this book and still have it somewhere, along with the sequel "Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You." I must have read them both a hundred times. El... more »
    momentsofabsurdity: I loved this book, I read it over and over again. I think it's why I dislike the name Elsie even today -- because even though I know I was supposed to... more »
    Gnatalby: I feel like there's a sequel, from Elsie's point of view when she's in high school, and not fat, but is still sort of shy from being fat? And a boyfri... more »
    misspell: The second plotfinder really reminds me of Homecoming, that ya novel by Cynthia Voigt about four kids (I know that's too many) whose father is a deadb... more »
    ChildBride: The book with the FUNCHY Club is "Invisible Lissa." The cover had a girl staring into the girls' room mirror, with a paper taped to it that had scrawl... more »
    Aesop's Foibles. YES.: Oh, Lizzie, you are like a fly on the wall in my brain. I was thinking of this book just a few weeks ago, but couldn't remember the title. I remembere... more »
    TheExperience: I didn't really get into this book, but holy crap, I read "Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You" at least 10392948435732 times in my youth, and excerpts fr... more »
    zombie.nancy is a godess of fierce: I wish there's a non-FaceBook way to submit suggestions for the next installment of Fine Lines b/c I have 2 words for ya: CADDIE WOODLAWN more »
    cupscake: Yes - I loved this book when I was in 5th grade! I would look at the cover all the time while reading - I wanted to be a part of that sleepover! more »
  • #finelines

    Nothing's Fair In Fifth Grade: Pleading The Fifth