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Minn and Jake
A surprising friendship
Do you ever feel like you’ve somehow lost your true best friend? Minn feels this way. So does Jake. But Minn and Jake have no intention of being friends. Minn’s a string bean. Jake’s a shrimp. Minn’s a girl. Jake’s a boy. And in fifth grade, who wants a best friend of the opposite sex? But Minn and Jake are forced together by circumstances, which only strengthen their resistance . . . until Minn takes Jake lizard hunting. There are lots of good ways to choose a friend.
This enchanting free-verse novel, accompanied by expressive, humorous black-and-white drawings, proves that sometimes friendship just happens.
Do you ever feel like you’ve somehow lost your true best friend? Minn feels this way. So does Jake. But Minn and Jake have no intention of being friends. Minn’s a string bean. Jake’s a shrimp. Minn’s a girl. Jake’s a boy. And in fifth grade, who wants a best friend of the opposite sex? But Minn and Jake are forced together by circumstances, which only strengthen their resistance . . . until Minn takes Jake lizard hunting. There are lots of good ways to choose a friend.
This enchanting free-verse novel, accompanied by expressive, humorous black-and-white drawings, proves that sometimes friendship just happens.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published August 12, 2003
3 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
Janet S. Wong
49 books31 followersJanet S. Wong was born in Los Angeles, and grew up in Southern and Northern California. As part of her undergraduate program at UCLA, she spent her junior year in France, studying art history at the Université de Bordeaux. When she returned from France, Janet founded the UCLA Immigrant Children's Art Project, a program focused on teaching refugee children to express themselves through art.
After graduating from UCLA, summa cum laude, with a B.A. in History and College Honors, Janet then obtained her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was a director of the Yale Law and Technology Association and worked for New Haven Legal Aid. After practicing corporate and labor law for a few years for GTE and Universal Studios Hollywood, she made a dramatic career change—choosing to write for young people instead. Her successful switch from law to children’s literature has been the subject of several articles and television programs, most notably an O Magazine article, a "Remembering Your Spirit" segment on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," and the Fine Living Channel’s "Radical Sabbatical."
Janet's poems and stories have been featured in many textbooks and anthologies, and also in some more unusual venues. Poems from Behind the Wheel have been performed on a car-talk radio show. "Albert J. Bell" from A Suitcase of Seaweed was selected to appear on 5,000 subway and bus posters as part of the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority's "Poetry in Motion" program, and was later highlighted on the Hallmark Channel’s "New Morning" show. And, in April 2003, Janet was one of five children’s authors invited to read at The White House Easter Egg Roll.
Janet and her books have received numerous awards and honors, such as the International Reading Association's "Celebrate Literacy Award" for exemplary service in the promotion of literacy, and the prestigious Stone Center Recognition of Merit, given by the Claremont Graduate School. Janet also has been appointed to two terms on the Commission on Literature of the National Council of Teachers of English.
Janet currently resides near Princeton, NJ, with her husband Glenn and her son Andrew.
After graduating from UCLA, summa cum laude, with a B.A. in History and College Honors, Janet then obtained her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she was a director of the Yale Law and Technology Association and worked for New Haven Legal Aid. After practicing corporate and labor law for a few years for GTE and Universal Studios Hollywood, she made a dramatic career change—choosing to write for young people instead. Her successful switch from law to children’s literature has been the subject of several articles and television programs, most notably an O Magazine article, a "Remembering Your Spirit" segment on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," and the Fine Living Channel’s "Radical Sabbatical."
Janet's poems and stories have been featured in many textbooks and anthologies, and also in some more unusual venues. Poems from Behind the Wheel have been performed on a car-talk radio show. "Albert J. Bell" from A Suitcase of Seaweed was selected to appear on 5,000 subway and bus posters as part of the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority's "Poetry in Motion" program, and was later highlighted on the Hallmark Channel’s "New Morning" show. And, in April 2003, Janet was one of five children’s authors invited to read at The White House Easter Egg Roll.
Janet and her books have received numerous awards and honors, such as the International Reading Association's "Celebrate Literacy Award" for exemplary service in the promotion of literacy, and the prestigious Stone Center Recognition of Merit, given by the Claremont Graduate School. Janet also has been appointed to two terms on the Commission on Literature of the National Council of Teachers of English.
Janet currently resides near Princeton, NJ, with her husband Glenn and her son Andrew.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 31, 2016
been in the pile for way too long. I love Janet Wong.
January 13, 2020
This book is a book that uses poetry to describe a new friendship forming through understanding each other and trying to look at the world through how someone else sees it. It follows the story of a new kid who is very short for his grade who needs help reaching a book and asks the tallest girl in class to help. They both don’t like each other, but they keep having to hang out. While they are hanging out, they then realize more how the other person looks at the world. One is more into the wilderness while one would much rather be at home. However, they are able to spend time with the other one they are able to step out of there own comfort zone and really get to know the other person.
In a classroom, I would use this book either as a read-aloud book over several different times to my class or as a book club book for them. I think that this book really shows not to judge a book by its cover when it comes to making friends. It shows how even if you are very different you can still have things in common and you can help each other. Using this book as a read-aloud or as a book club book you could have them look at the ways in each, they were different, but what happened when each of them was willing to get to know the other one.
The thing that was WOW about this book is how it can relate to the classroom and how it is a larger topic inside of it, but how it is able to convey it using something as small as a lizard to represent differences. I wouldn’t use this book for 5th grade, but this book does have some humor in it that I think 3rd grade would really like as a read-aloud and 4th grade would be able to read in a book club.
In a classroom, I would use this book either as a read-aloud book over several different times to my class or as a book club book for them. I think that this book really shows not to judge a book by its cover when it comes to making friends. It shows how even if you are very different you can still have things in common and you can help each other. Using this book as a read-aloud or as a book club book you could have them look at the ways in each, they were different, but what happened when each of them was willing to get to know the other one.
The thing that was WOW about this book is how it can relate to the classroom and how it is a larger topic inside of it, but how it is able to convey it using something as small as a lizard to represent differences. I wouldn’t use this book for 5th grade, but this book does have some humor in it that I think 3rd grade would really like as a read-aloud and 4th grade would be able to read in a book club.
June 25, 2019
Although I read this to kill time, it turned out to be a remarkable find with a lot of unexpected merits. The poetic format surprised and impressed me for the age group it seems to be written for, and the conflict involves heavier subjects that are approached enough to be meaningful without being overwhelming. Highly recommend.
April 3, 2022
This story is great for children because one it portrays Minn and Jake so well and realistic at their ages. For two the story covers a sensitive topic about growing up, wanting to be accepted, and feel not good enough because of ones differences. Having this book in a classroom can setting can be so beneficial for a way to help students who may be having similar struggles and worries.
August 26, 2017
Written in verse, Jake is new to school, eventually makes friends with Minn...she loves to catch lizards, he doesn't...
May 7, 2013
Wong, J. (2008). Minn and Jake’s almost terrible summer. New York, New York: Francis Foster Books.
Jake is the main character in this prose narrative. He’s a middle school-aged boy and his best friend is Minn, a girl. The thing is that Jake hasn’t been keeping in touch with her since school got out for summer (not returning phone calls and such). When they do meet up again, they run into some bumpy moments. When they go out to eat at a restaurant, Jake tells Minn that he’s a quarter Korean, and Minn feels offended that she didn’t know that. Jake wonders why she doesn’t care if he’s 3/4 other races, and why she cares so much that he’s 1/4 Korean. When their families go to Disneyland, they have a little tiff about Haylee, a girl that Jake has a bit of a crush on. At the end, though, they resolve their differences; Jake apologizes to Minn in a quick phone call (59 seconds to be exact), and the rest of the summer he is unburdened by the fact that he wasn’t being such a good friend.
This is the first prose novel that I’ve ever read. It was refreshing to just breeze through a story like that. It definitely feels short, but it is definitely not lacking in character or plot development. The characters and their relationships with one another are pretty complex. Jake, who is “quarpa”- a play on the slang term “hapa,” which means half one race and half another- is trying to navigate his identity vis-a-vis his friend Minn’s and society’s perception of him. To him, Jake doesn’t feel like his racial background was worth mentioning to Minn, yet Minn felt so taken aback by learning this new fact about her friend. Was it because Minn was surprised that he was part Korean and that she doesn’t like that about him, or because it’s something that she should have known as his friend? I think a lot of mixed race Asian Americans, or mixed race kids in general would identify with Jake.
Genre: realistic fiction, prose narrative
Reading level/interest level: Tween, Young Adult, Adult
Similar books/materials:
Reader’s advisory notes:
* i. personal thoughts: I enjoyed reading the prose style narrative. It captured the fleeting ideas of a kid in the summertime, while also being poetic and descriptive.
* ii. subjects/themes: friendship,self-image, family, Asian-American experience, mixed race experience
* iii. awards:
* iv. series information:
* v. character names/description: Jake, middle school age boy, of a mixed race heritage; Minn, Jake’s best friend; Soup, Jake’s little brother; Halmoni, Jake’s Korean grandmother who he worries about because she has diabetes.
* vi. annotation: Jake saves his friendship with his best friend Minn. But it takes some of the summer, family, and a few misunderstandings for them to reconnect and realize that they like each other.
Jake is the main character in this prose narrative. He’s a middle school-aged boy and his best friend is Minn, a girl. The thing is that Jake hasn’t been keeping in touch with her since school got out for summer (not returning phone calls and such). When they do meet up again, they run into some bumpy moments. When they go out to eat at a restaurant, Jake tells Minn that he’s a quarter Korean, and Minn feels offended that she didn’t know that. Jake wonders why she doesn’t care if he’s 3/4 other races, and why she cares so much that he’s 1/4 Korean. When their families go to Disneyland, they have a little tiff about Haylee, a girl that Jake has a bit of a crush on. At the end, though, they resolve their differences; Jake apologizes to Minn in a quick phone call (59 seconds to be exact), and the rest of the summer he is unburdened by the fact that he wasn’t being such a good friend.
This is the first prose novel that I’ve ever read. It was refreshing to just breeze through a story like that. It definitely feels short, but it is definitely not lacking in character or plot development. The characters and their relationships with one another are pretty complex. Jake, who is “quarpa”- a play on the slang term “hapa,” which means half one race and half another- is trying to navigate his identity vis-a-vis his friend Minn’s and society’s perception of him. To him, Jake doesn’t feel like his racial background was worth mentioning to Minn, yet Minn felt so taken aback by learning this new fact about her friend. Was it because Minn was surprised that he was part Korean and that she doesn’t like that about him, or because it’s something that she should have known as his friend? I think a lot of mixed race Asian Americans, or mixed race kids in general would identify with Jake.
Genre: realistic fiction, prose narrative
Reading level/interest level: Tween, Young Adult, Adult
Similar books/materials:
Reader’s advisory notes:
* i. personal thoughts: I enjoyed reading the prose style narrative. It captured the fleeting ideas of a kid in the summertime, while also being poetic and descriptive.
* ii. subjects/themes: friendship,self-image, family, Asian-American experience, mixed race experience
* iii. awards:
* iv. series information:
* v. character names/description: Jake, middle school age boy, of a mixed race heritage; Minn, Jake’s best friend; Soup, Jake’s little brother; Halmoni, Jake’s Korean grandmother who he worries about because she has diabetes.
* vi. annotation: Jake saves his friendship with his best friend Minn. But it takes some of the summer, family, and a few misunderstandings for them to reconnect and realize that they like each other.
August 2, 2008
Wong, Janet S. 2003. (Paperback 2008). Minn and Jake.
"The story of losing--and finding--a true best friend."
Minn and Jake is a verse novel with tween protagonists. (Minn and Jake are fifth graders.) When the novel opens, Minn is having a rough time. She's feeling "extra lizardy and alone." She feels betrayed, in a way, by her former "true best friend" Sabina. Our first poem tells us,
Minn is feeling very empty,
and very tall,
and very odd,
and very pigtailed,
and very lizardy,
and very much alone.
But Minn soon meets Jake. Though Jake isn't the true best friend she'd been waiting for. Jake is the new kid, the transfer student. He's short and has "a spiky haircut that he never asked for that makes him look like a baby crow." Yet in a relatively short amount of time--a few days or a week--the two begin to discover a thing or two about friendship.
There were many things I enjoyed about this one. Details. It's all in the details. The quirky little things that takes this book from ordinary and quite typical to great fun. It just feels right. Jake and Minn feel like they're real kids, doing real kid things and having real kid problems.
Early on in the book when Minn is over at Jake's house, and Minn is being 'forced' to play with Soup, Jake's baby brother, there is an accident with the fish tank. This bit of a poem is right after the accident.
Jake spent a whole week
coming up with name
that fit the fish--
Plungerface: the yellow one with the big nose
who likes to suck the side of the tank.
Disposal: the garbage fish,
the minute catfish
who eats the old food and scum
at the bottom.
Ick and Uck:
the ones who always seem to have poop
trailing out their backsides.
Angelghost:
the silvery black-and-white angelfish,
so flat and skinny
there's hardly enough room
for real live guts
in her.
Flick: the black one
who likes to flick
her long flowing fins
into the other fishes' faces.
The last seven (six, now),
the little blue ones,
have easy names:
all of them
are called
the $2.99 Blue Kind,
which makes them feel like a team.
As soon as I read that, I *knew* that this was the kind of book I'd love.
"The story of losing--and finding--a true best friend."
Minn and Jake is a verse novel with tween protagonists. (Minn and Jake are fifth graders.) When the novel opens, Minn is having a rough time. She's feeling "extra lizardy and alone." She feels betrayed, in a way, by her former "true best friend" Sabina. Our first poem tells us,
Minn is feeling very empty,
and very tall,
and very odd,
and very pigtailed,
and very lizardy,
and very much alone.
But Minn soon meets Jake. Though Jake isn't the true best friend she'd been waiting for. Jake is the new kid, the transfer student. He's short and has "a spiky haircut that he never asked for that makes him look like a baby crow." Yet in a relatively short amount of time--a few days or a week--the two begin to discover a thing or two about friendship.
There were many things I enjoyed about this one. Details. It's all in the details. The quirky little things that takes this book from ordinary and quite typical to great fun. It just feels right. Jake and Minn feel like they're real kids, doing real kid things and having real kid problems.
Early on in the book when Minn is over at Jake's house, and Minn is being 'forced' to play with Soup, Jake's baby brother, there is an accident with the fish tank. This bit of a poem is right after the accident.
Jake spent a whole week
coming up with name
that fit the fish--
Plungerface: the yellow one with the big nose
who likes to suck the side of the tank.
Disposal: the garbage fish,
the minute catfish
who eats the old food and scum
at the bottom.
Ick and Uck:
the ones who always seem to have poop
trailing out their backsides.
Angelghost:
the silvery black-and-white angelfish,
so flat and skinny
there's hardly enough room
for real live guts
in her.
Flick: the black one
who likes to flick
her long flowing fins
into the other fishes' faces.
The last seven (six, now),
the little blue ones,
have easy names:
all of them
are called
the $2.99 Blue Kind,
which makes them feel like a team.
As soon as I read that, I *knew* that this was the kind of book I'd love.
May 25, 2012
This is a young-readers novel told in free verse. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the free verse format to fit with this story at all. There was nothing poetic about it, the lines didn’t flow together, or paint a beautiful picture with words like most verse novels do.
Not only did I not like the format of the story, but I didn’t much care for the story itself. Going into it I thought it was going to be this sweet story of new friendship, but it turned out to be an awkward story about two kids who can’t stand each other at first and then without you really realizing what happened, bam, they’re best friends.
And then there’s the whole lizard thing, Minn is obsessed with catching lizards and she tries to teach Jake even though he hates them. I felt like the whole book was used to talk about lizards; catching lizards, studying lizards, dreaming about lizards, dancing and chanting to the lizard gods, etc…
The best part about this story were the cute sketch-like illustrations that accompanied it, and to go along with the lizard theme there was a lizard shaped cloud, shadow, or something in each picture.
I’m thinking this story was meant more for boys than girls, who would enjoy all the lizard talk and not care so much that the friendship seemed disjointed.
Not only did I not like the format of the story, but I didn’t much care for the story itself. Going into it I thought it was going to be this sweet story of new friendship, but it turned out to be an awkward story about two kids who can’t stand each other at first and then without you really realizing what happened, bam, they’re best friends.
And then there’s the whole lizard thing, Minn is obsessed with catching lizards and she tries to teach Jake even though he hates them. I felt like the whole book was used to talk about lizards; catching lizards, studying lizards, dreaming about lizards, dancing and chanting to the lizard gods, etc…
The best part about this story were the cute sketch-like illustrations that accompanied it, and to go along with the lizard theme there was a lizard shaped cloud, shadow, or something in each picture.
I’m thinking this story was meant more for boys than girls, who would enjoy all the lizard talk and not care so much that the friendship seemed disjointed.
March 7, 2011
Published August 12th 2003 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Interest Level: 5th-7th Grade
This is a great book of poetry that explores themes of friendship, family, urban, and rural lifestyles. It is unclear what the ethnic origins are of the characters besides the drawings, but overall, this is a good example of including interracial characters in believable, non-invasive means. The sequel focuses more on Jake's interracial background and Minn's ethnic background. The illustrations are simple black and white drawings that show the events that are occurring in the poetry.
The free verse and authentic explorations of nature allow for the reader to experience rural lifestyle in a much more intimate way that is in an easy-to-read format.
Interest Level: 5th-7th Grade
This is a great book of poetry that explores themes of friendship, family, urban, and rural lifestyles. It is unclear what the ethnic origins are of the characters besides the drawings, but overall, this is a good example of including interracial characters in believable, non-invasive means. The sequel focuses more on Jake's interracial background and Minn's ethnic background. The illustrations are simple black and white drawings that show the events that are occurring in the poetry.
The free verse and authentic explorations of nature allow for the reader to experience rural lifestyle in a much more intimate way that is in an easy-to-read format.
November 19, 2013
Minn and Jake is the sweet story of a young boy and girl who both feel like outsiders in their schools. Minn is unusually tall while Jake is unusually short. They create a special friendship in which their differences don't matter.This book is also unusual since it focuses on the friendship between a boy and girl, rather than two girls or two boys. One of my favorite parts of this story is how the story is written using poetry. This makes for a quick read and it always makes it a little easier for students to comprehend. I love recommending this book to my students which are middle school students. I also recommend it to struggling readers since it looks like a chapter book but is overall much shorter.
November 17, 2008
I liked this book quite a lot. I generally tend to enjoy the verse format for novels. I think it can make a reluctant reader feel accomplished as it tends to read more quickly than a standard novel.
As for the story itself, I really enjoyed these two friends and the how they came to understand each other after getting off on the wrong foot (several times!). I also liked that Wong addressed in her story that these two are at a crossroads in terms of how friendships between boys and girls work.
As for the story itself, I really enjoyed these two friends and the how they came to understand each other after getting off on the wrong foot (several times!). I also liked that Wong addressed in her story that these two are at a crossroads in terms of how friendships between boys and girls work.
January 13, 2017
I absolutely LOVED this book because it didn't seem like a novel written in verse, but like a regular book with a slight twist. It was really funny and described friendship with so many details, that I could actually relate to what this book was about. The author, Janet S. Wong, did a very good job describing what a friendship between a boy and a girl NOT BY CHOICE looks like, and that anybody can become friends over time, even completely different people with different likes and dislikes.
August 21, 2012
Great friendship novel in free verse about a fifth grade desert girl who loves lizards and a "new-in-town" city boy who doesn't. An unlikely pair who share adventures in the Gulch and the Screep (doesn't that sound just wonderfully free-wheeling, unlike so many of today's kids' suburban adventures?) while they grow to be less lonely and more confident among their peers.
For ages 7-10.
For ages 7-10.
December 22, 2007
Cute story of two mismatched children (one too tall, the other too short) who become friends, written in verse format.
I'd like to have seen it a bit longer, with some parts fleshed out more. I like Janet Wong's poems, and hope she writes more novels in verse.
I'd like to have seen it a bit longer, with some parts fleshed out more. I like Janet Wong's poems, and hope she writes more novels in verse.
August 19, 2010
A book in poetry form, what genius! This is a great story about a girl and a boy, neither whom fit in very well, and how they become best friends.
Apparently I will another soon that is a book in poetry form: Love That Dog.
Apparently I will another soon that is a book in poetry form: Love That Dog.
January 29, 2012
After seeing Janet Wong at the iYouth Conference, I picked up this book and read it rather quickly. It's a very cute children's story/poem about best friends, worms, and lizard catching. The illustrations are also pretty charming--they remind me a bit of Quentin Blake's.
May 30, 2009
GOOD BOOK SHORT, BUT HAS ALOT OF MEANINGS ABOUT FRIENDS
June 9, 2009
I thought it was okay. I is a really small book and it got boring in parts.
July 5, 2015
I liked it. it was kind of quiet. lots of lizard catching and kids daring others to do stuff. Jake is small and from the city, Minn is tall and an expert lizard catcher.
June 6, 2016
Cute story of friendship beginnings, told in verse. Sweet.
February 26, 2009
I should have read this book when I was like seven years old.
April 12, 2013
Cute small read.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews