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A Smart Kid Like You
Just as Nina begins to accept her parents' divorce, she discovers her father's new wife is to be her seventh grade math teacher.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 1975
About the author
Stella Pevsner
29 books12 followersStella Pevsner, who is the author of eighteen books for children from 8 to 13 years, was voted Illinois Children's Book Author of the Year 1987. Among her awards are The Golden Kite; the Carl Sandburg, the Society of Midland Authors, Arkansas State, Virginia State, and the Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
After a career in advertising and freelance writing, she turned to children's books at the request of a young son who said his favorite author "didn't write fast enough." She wrote a book to fulfill her role as "the invincible parent" and enjoyed it so much that after the book-by-request (Break a Leg!) was published she kept on writing.
Early favorites among her books are The Night the Whole Class Slept Over; Me, My Goat and My Sister's Wedding; A Smart Kid Like You; Cute is a 4-Letter Word; Sister of the Quints; I'm Emma: I'm a Quint. One of her prize-winning novels, And You Give Me a Pain, Elaine describes how a girl survives life with an out-of-bounds teenage sister and then a greater family tragedy. Teen suicide and its after-effects on the family is the subject of another awards book, How Could You Do It, Diane?
Her experiences tutoring at Literacy Chicago led to a book which depicted the life of her Chinese student, an outcast in north Viet Nam during the war. The young girl, along with other children, hid in the jungle during air raids, and finally, was forced to flee with her family. The book, called Sing for Your Father, Su Phan, is treasured by the former student, now a Chicago salon owner, as a record of more difficult times. A continued association with the Chinese family inspired Stella Pevsner to write a book about the friendship between an Asian and Caucasian girl, titled, Would My Fortune Cookie Lie?
Jon, Flora, and the Odd-Eyed Cat describes the secret meetings on summer nights between a boy recovering from rheumatic fever and the never-seen-in-daylight girl who owns a mysterious cat. A girl who feels the whole world has gone berserk is the heroine of Is Everyone Moonburned but Me?
"Although some of my books deal with serious situations in the lives of children, my underlying theme is that there is always hope and yes, humor, in day-to-day living," the author says. In her frequent speeches to school children, she urges them to do their best since, in the words of Samuel Boswell, "The future is purchased by the present." She hopes that kids who enjoy her books will be encouraged to go on reading forever.
After a career in advertising and freelance writing, she turned to children's books at the request of a young son who said his favorite author "didn't write fast enough." She wrote a book to fulfill her role as "the invincible parent" and enjoyed it so much that after the book-by-request (Break a Leg!) was published she kept on writing.
Early favorites among her books are The Night the Whole Class Slept Over; Me, My Goat and My Sister's Wedding; A Smart Kid Like You; Cute is a 4-Letter Word; Sister of the Quints; I'm Emma: I'm a Quint. One of her prize-winning novels, And You Give Me a Pain, Elaine describes how a girl survives life with an out-of-bounds teenage sister and then a greater family tragedy. Teen suicide and its after-effects on the family is the subject of another awards book, How Could You Do It, Diane?
Her experiences tutoring at Literacy Chicago led to a book which depicted the life of her Chinese student, an outcast in north Viet Nam during the war. The young girl, along with other children, hid in the jungle during air raids, and finally, was forced to flee with her family. The book, called Sing for Your Father, Su Phan, is treasured by the former student, now a Chicago salon owner, as a record of more difficult times. A continued association with the Chinese family inspired Stella Pevsner to write a book about the friendship between an Asian and Caucasian girl, titled, Would My Fortune Cookie Lie?
Jon, Flora, and the Odd-Eyed Cat describes the secret meetings on summer nights between a boy recovering from rheumatic fever and the never-seen-in-daylight girl who owns a mysterious cat. A girl who feels the whole world has gone berserk is the heroine of Is Everyone Moonburned but Me?
"Although some of my books deal with serious situations in the lives of children, my underlying theme is that there is always hope and yes, humor, in day-to-day living," the author says. In her frequent speeches to school children, she urges them to do their best since, in the words of Samuel Boswell, "The future is purchased by the present." She hopes that kids who enjoy her books will be encouraged to go on reading forever.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 16, 2012
I enjoyed this book back in middle school
September 4, 2017
Nina Beckwith is a low-key, non-neurotic preteen gifted with athleticism and empathy as well as math aptitude. Upon her return from summer-long camp, Nina starts her school year with a surprise assignation to an accelerated ("Experimental") math class taught by an unfamiliar woman who months earlier became second wife to Nina's dad. (Nina wasn't invited to the May wedding, five months after her parents divorced. Presumably Nina's dad had pronounced rebound issue or the math teacher Beckwith-2 was dad's extracurricular hobby during marriage #1.) Nina's pubescent interest in boys is awakened, a college student moves in to help out in the large house while Nina's mom works, and Nina's mom too explores the post-divorce dating world.
The structure of this 1975 novel didn't lead to a grand climax where subplots meet and resolve. These issues are resolved without much drama, but low-key empathy and communication skills. It was interesting from a 2010s perspective to read about 12-year-olds wearing makeup and three-year-olds climbing from a car's backseat to a passenger front seat while the vehicle is in motion. The characters are mild, even the eccentric Merlaine, and subplots are teased and then dropped without real resolution.
The structure of this 1975 novel didn't lead to a grand climax where subplots meet and resolve. These issues are resolved without much drama, but low-key empathy and communication skills. It was interesting from a 2010s perspective to read about 12-year-olds wearing makeup and three-year-olds climbing from a car's backseat to a passenger front seat while the vehicle is in motion. The characters are mild, even the eccentric Merlaine, and subplots are teased and then dropped without real resolution.
September 28, 2019
Nina Beckwith had been sent to summer camp all summer to give her now single mom a chance to work and to get away from her newly remarried dad. When she comes back, she enters a regular junior high instead of the university experimental school she's been in. The shock comes when she discovers her math teacher is her new stepmother. The class pulls all kinds of stunts to get "even". Nina learns to get her mom to talk and not treat her like a baby and discovers her dad is much happier and his new family is okay too.
October 27, 2017
Good book describing how a teen would feel during divorce and school with the new stepmom and siblings.
August 26, 2013
Uh, yeah, so I was looking through my bookshelves for things to cull and this looked like a good candidate. So I read it - it's a very quick read. It's ooookaaaaay. I think it's true to the feelings of being that age. But in the end, not a lot happens and it doesn't go much of anywhere. There's a definite character arc but I'm not sure it's convincing. It's not a terrible book by any stretch. It's worth a read, but for me, not worth keeping.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews