Lucy Rose: Here's the Thing About Me

Lucy Rose #1

by Katy Kelly, Adam Rex (Illustrator)

I’m Lucy Rose and here’s the thing about I am eight and according to my grandfather I have the kind of life that is called eventful, which means NOT boring. According to my mom and my grandmother, I’m what they call a handful. And according to my dad, I am one smart cookie.
I say I am one girl who is feeling not-so-sure about things on account of my parents got a separation. Plus my mom and I just moved to Washington, D.C. Plus I haven’t met any friends yet, but I do know someone who is not one and that is Adam Melon, who I call Melonhead.
Here’s another thing about Most of the time, I am plain hilarious.

Genres: Humor, Childrens, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Middle Grade, Friendship, School

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Elina · Rating 5 out of 5]

[پنج ستاره دادم،چون برادرِ پنج ساله‌م مَهراد، بعد از تموم شدنش گفت من بهش ۲۰ میدم! و این کتاب برای اون بود.]

این اولین رمان کودکی بود که برای مهراد خوندم
استقبال مهراد فوق‌العاده بود و با تک‌تکِ جمله‌های کتاب ذوق کرد :)
بهم گفت،الینا میشه بازم برام از این کتابا بخری؟
لبخندی که بعد از این سوالش زدم لبخندِ معمولی نبود
از سر آرامش بود.
خیالم راحت شده بود!
کتابخون شدنِ مهراد برای من دقیقا مثل تحققِ یه رویاست
دلم میخواست بعد از اینکه بهم گفت بازم میخوام برام کتاب بخونی،یه آخیشِ از تهِ دل بگم و بهش بگم:
u found your way boy :)))
خیالم راحت شد چون دیگه نگرانِ ورودش به جامعه و مشکلاتِ آینده‌ش تو زندگیش نیستم.
خیالم راحت شد چون مطمئنم با کتاب خوندن قراره یه دیدِ وسیع پیدا کنه و این یعنی نیاز نیست من یه سری چیزارو بهش بگم و خودش با مطالعه میفهمه :)
خیالم راحت شد چون قرار نیست توی زندگیش چیزی رو طوطی‌وار تکرار کنه و قراره با مطالعه به نتیجه برسه :)
اینکه مهراد قراره از این به بعد همراه با من کتابای بیشتری بخونه باعث میشه خوشحال‌ترین باشم❤
Keep going love🌱💜
1400/1/1

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. The word choices are weird for an eight year old and the adults are...off to me. I guess because the MC is eight, we don’t understand why she is moved with the Mom instead of staying with the Dad in the school system and with the friends she had, but whatev. I’m just not connecting with it. Not the book, I think it may be me on this one. 2 stars, because it is ok to me. Not worth going past page 52. DNF for me.

[Tess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book as a present and laughed all the way. It is a hilarious book about an 8-year-old who moves from Michigan to Washington, D.C. She has to start over at a new school and make new friends. I think this would make a great movie!

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book because this little girl has so many adventures. For instance lucy Rose wanted to keep her class pet over the holidays. Lucy Rose got the class pet and she lost him. She got help from her to friends... And she got help from melonhead the kid that is so annoying. Together they find the class pet in a little maze under the floor boards. Melonhead was the one who went down under the floor boards on a metal lifter and found the class pet. If you like fun little girls who have adventures read this book!

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Little Bookworm
This was precious little book. I can't say that I read anymore of the series since it is definitely an elementary level book. My 4 year old seemed to like it alright. Lucy Rose is a cute character and I liked her advice column grandmother and her grandfather. They were a nice addition to the story especially with Lucy Rose "anonymously" asking her grandmother advice on things. It was cute and I'd say that elementary school readers would enjoy them.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucy Rose is a very exiciting girl with a very exciting life . She collcts palindromes and new vocabulary words. When you read this book there will be very exciting new words you will learn and really cool palindromes

[Kristie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Story written in diary format by a spunky 8-yr-old girl. Reminds me of Judy Moody and Ramona.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cute story!

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE Lucy Rose! It makes me sad that almost nobody I know knows about her. There are 3 more Lucy Rose books and I loved them all. She reminds me a little of Ramona Quimby.

[Tami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucy Rose is a third-grader attending school in Washington D.C., where she lives with her mom, newly separated from her dad. Lucy Rose narrates the story in a simple, genuine voice. Like any 9-year-old, Lucy Rose is apprehensive about a new school, sad about moving away from her father, irritated by a boy at school, and full of love for her mother, father and grandparents.

Readers see plenty of evidence to back up Lucy Rose’s claim that she is an “original thinker.” Lucy Rose and readers alike roll through the joys and the frustrations in a year full of changes and new challenges. Lucy Rose remains high-spirited and outspoken throughout. She is by turns funny and insightful. The story is both wholesome and humorous. My children and I had a great time reading this together, giggling at Lucy Rose’s antics and feeling reassured by the way in which she navigates her difficulties.

Lucy Rose, Here’s The Thing About Me is a good choice for young readers who have enjoyed the Junie B Jones series by Barbara Park, but are starting to grow out of it. This an excellent read-aloud/bedtime or independent reading choice for ages 6-9.

As an extra note I should mention that I chose to search out and read a Lucy Rose book because I had read Lovelace nominee Melonhead by Katy Kelly (same author). Although I was not overly thrilled with Melonhead I did feel there were some strong narrative and character moments in that book that warranted a sampling of the author’s other work. Melonhead is a minor character in the Lucy Rose books (and she is in Melonhead as well). The quality of the storyline and the strong characters in Lucy Rose lead me to believe that future books fromt his author using the character of Melonhead have the potential to be equally enjoyable and engaging. (I may go back and re-read Melonhead to see if my opinion has changed at all after reading Lucy Rose.)

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucy Rose is just great - possibly my favorite character/series of the realistic elementary-grade girl genre. In her first outing, we meet Lucy Rose just getting settled in to her new home in Washington, D.C., where she & her mother have moved following her parents' separation, to be near her maternal grandparents. Lucy Rose feels ambivalent at best about this new change in her life - especially having to start third grade at a new school & make new friends. Luckily, that doesn't take long, thanks to new best friend Jonique - but she has a definite NOT friend in the person of classmate Adam Melon, aka Melonhead, & she's going to need a lot of help figuring out the best way to deal with him.
Lucy Rose is absolutely authentic, & a great deal of this book is seriously funny to kids & adults alike. I read it aloud to a second-grade class, & the kids loved it: they related to things about Lucy Rose that were similar to their lives, laughed at some of the scrapes she got into, & felt a lot of sympathy for her trials.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A step up from Junie B.

[Anne Hawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucy Rose could be Junie B. Jones in 3rd grade. She has the same kind of spunk and good intentions that tend to go awry. She is an "individual" and things are rarely boring around her.

Her parents are separated and she has left Michigan for Washington, DC where she lives very close to her grandparents. While she enjoys her grandparents, and they seem to be of the very best sort for an independent little girl, she doesn't look forward to a new school, especially when the one student she meets is a boy she dislikes thoroughly.

This book is hilarious and I fell in love with Lucy Rose and her whole family. Her parents are very supportive of her and while they are separated, they both show their love for Lucy Rose by the way they treat each other. This is a great book!

[Livia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucy Rose is adjusting to her new life as the daughter of separated parents. She now lives with her mother in Washington DC, down the street from her grandparents. In addition to dealing with a new school and the third grade, she also as yet has no friends. Badly missing her father and her friends in Ann Arbor, Michigan she is willing to give the whole arrangement a try but,she hits more than a few snags on the way to succeeding. This is a fun story for third graders.

[B · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first in a series of books about 8 year old Lucy Rose who moves to DC, (Capitol Hill area), when her parents divorce. She's spunky and funny like Junie B Jones but on a slightly higher reading level.

[babyhippoface · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as squirrelly as Junie B. Jones, but a funny, spunky kid!

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucy Rose reminds me of a far less annoying Junie B. Jones.

[Charlotte Osborn-bensaada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cute series set in Washington,DC. Author is from DC and hits all the sites and sounds quite well, though with a certain nostalgia for a Washington that is no longer.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun discovery of a new series! Lucy Rose and her family are a lively bunch of characters. The vocab and storytelling are terrific and it is all set on Capital Hill.

[Shannon Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute and adorable!

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute book and the story was fast paced and interesting, but I didn't like the journal format in the voice of the main character and the lack of punctuation. My 6 yr old started it on her own & said she didn't like it, but once I was reading it out loud (and adding in emotion with my voice and pauses where punctuation belonged) she really enjoyed it.

It was fun to read about places in Washington DC that we visited or saw on our recent trip though!

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

3rd grader Lucy Rose deals with her parents' separation and a move

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute, fun read aloud. My kids loved it and I did too!

[Corinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

My granddaughter, Cami, would live this book!!

[Lisa Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my nee fave read alouds!

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book in the Lucy Rose series by Katy Kelly. The narrative is entertaining and is appropriate for children in elementary school.

It's another series featuring a spunky young female character, similar to Clementine, Judy Moody, Junie B. Jones, Ramona, and others. I think it would be especially helpful for children with parents who have separated or divorced.

Our girls enjoyed reading about a character who lives in our local area - we learned about a couple of interesting places to go visit that we hadn't heard of before.

The illustrations by Adam Rex have an interesting perspective and complement the story nicely. I loved that Lucy is very proud of being an 'original thinker.' We really enjoyed reading this book together.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lucy Rose just moved to Washington, D.C. from Ann Arbor Michigan since her parent's separation. Mom and Lucy Rose live near Madam and Pop, her grandparents, who are calm and cool, especially when Lucy Rose gets herself into tons of scrapes. Losing the class hamster, Jake in the floorboards, getting her best enemy friend Melonhead stuck in the dumb waiter, and eating black licorice before school are just some of the wacky things this 3rd grader does.

Lots of humor in this book, but nothing we haven't heard before...think Junie B. Jones, Gooney Bird Green, Ramona, and Judy Moody.

[Cheryl Gatling]

My ten-year-old daughter brought this home, and we read it together. She declared the part with the lost guinea pig "exciting" and the book as a whole "unpredictable." Maybe that's true. I didn't see her episode of public vomiting coming. But I did predict, as did her teacher Mr. Welch, that things would get better for her, in a new school in a new town, that she would make friends and settle down. This book reminded me of an older Junie B. Jones, because of her idiosyncratic way of speaking, and a syntax that is just a little off. Many of the pleasures of this book are the pleasures of its language, the clever comments of her parents and teachers, and Lucy Rose's own wry observations.

[Salsabrarian]

In diary format and first-person voice, follows the life of 8-year-old Lucy Rose in the course of a school year. Lucy Rose is a spunky, practical girl dealing with the separation of her parents; starting a new school; Adam "Melonhead," an annoying boy in her class; and yearning for her turn to take home the class guinea pig Jake. But there are some god things going on: her best friend in D.C. is Jonique McBee, she regularly visits her grandparents Madam and Pop, and Mr. Welsh is a pretty good teacher. Despite the worries and concerns of an 8-year-old, Lucy Rose approaches them with aplomb and humor.

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This girl reminded me a lot of Junie B. Jones in the way she talks, but she's older, 3rd grade, and not so exaggerated and silly. So it's not LOL funny like Junie B., but it is entertaining and fun reading with nice little lessons learned. Maya listened to part of the tape with me when she was home sick and she enjoyed it. Just noticed there are several more Lucy Rose books so it's a series.