I Repeat, Don't Cheat!

Jessica Worries

by Margery Cuyler, Arthur Howard (Illustrator)

Jessica and her best friend Lizzie do everything together. But when Lizzie starts copying words from Jessica’s spelling test, Jessica knows it isn’t right. Then Jessica tries to help Lizzie write a poem for their homework, but Lizzie takes credit for it in class! Jessica doesn’t want to lose her friend, but she can’t take it anymore. What should she do? With simple text and engaging illustrations, young readers will relate to Jessica’s latest worry—and they’ll have a great example to follow after they see how Jessica handles her problem.

Genres: Picture Books, Friendship, Childrens, Realistic Fiction, School

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Margery Cuyler is the author of many books for children, including From Here to There, The Little Dump Truck, and That’s Good! That’s Bad! The idea for That’s Good! That’s Bad! was inspired by a conversation with her son, Thomas, who asked, "Can't bad things change into good things?" Ms. Cuyler grew up in the oldest house in Princeton, NJ, and started writing stories as soon as she learned how to write. She now lives in the same house with her husband, sons and two cats.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/marger...

Reviews

[Anna Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Story Summary: It’s about a little girl that has a friend that likes to cheat off her paper and ask her to do her homework. Jessica doesn’t like that her friend Lizzie copies her work but doesn’t know what to do! Until one day she decides to tell the teacher and he makes her sit in a certain chair. Lizzie decides she doesn’t want to cheat anymore and they become friends again.
Grade Level: K-3
Classroom Use; To teach children it’s not ok to cheat!
Individual Student: I would give this to a student who has a friend like that and they don’t know what to do that way it can give them courage to do the right thing.
Small Group: I would analyze the feelings of the girl who is getting cheated off of.
Whole Classroom: I would split my class up and have them be either Jessica or lizzie and take on their point of view.
Related Books: The author has books about bullying
Multimedia: Audio books

[Aisyah Nassim · Rating 5 out of 5]

the best story book for little children by scolastic and i really recommend this book to public.

[books.bintulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nov 2024: I Repeat, Don't Cheat

Let's meet Jessica, a worrywart. She worries a lot about falling off, getting bitten by a spider and alien invasion. She has a best friend, Lizzie and Lizzie is the latest in her worry-list.

🙎🏻‍♀️Lizzie copied her spelling test
🙎🏻‍♀️Lizzie refused to be it after she was tagged. After bickering, Lizzie doesn't want to play anymore.
🙎🏻‍♀️Lizzie asked Jessica's help with her poem but ended up reading it as hers.

Jessica is worried that Lizzie will be mad at her and won't want to be her best friend anymore. She could not sleep and lost her appetite.

It is a difficult situation for the victim to be with a manipulative toxic friend. To make things worse, nobody believes what the victim is saying. Fortunately, Jessica eventually spoke up and, thank God, her class teacher believed her. Lizzie was sent to the thinking desk.

Have you heard any similar stories before? If your child, niece or nephew is in this situation with a friend, what will you do?🤔

[Elizabeth Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book about a friendship between two girls. This book has good teaching moments for kids who are shy, introverted and generally not very sure of how to deal with friends who sometimes take advantage of them. One of the friends cheats and the other friend doesn’t know how to stand up for herself.

[Donna Mork · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little girls best friend cheats off her paper, then makes her do her homework and takes credit. Finally she can't take it anymore. She tattles. The teacher makes the girl sit in the corner until she figures out what she did wrong. The next day the girl apologizes and says they are still friends.

[XIS Grade 3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like it a little bit because Jessica and Lizzie where best friends, but Lizzie always copied Jessica's work and Lizzie asked her not to cheat. (Oscar)

[Audrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good lesson book about primary school relationships, but that's about it. Would recommend if you were reading to a child who had issues with a friend copying/cheating/acting badly.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jessica is facing a moral dilemma, and it's causing her to worry.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jessica and Lizzy are the best of friends, but when Lizzy continues to exceed and abuse their friendship valuable lessons are learned about helping and doing.

[Catarina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about two girls where one has to learn to find her voice because her friend is cheating off her for school work. This would make a good read for elementary students.

[Kathleen]

Lizzie and Jessica are best friends. Lizzie is an artist and Jessica is a poet. One day Lizzie could not think of a poem to write for class so Jessica helped her out. Lizzie's poem was not only good, but the illustrations were beautiful. This wasn't the only time Jessica had helped Lizzie, but when Lizzie read her poem to the class and received all the credit Jessica got annoyed. Jessica never said anything when Lizzie would receive credit, but this time Jessica could not keep it to herself. Jessica told the teacher what really has been happening. The teacher sent Lizzie to the thinking desk and the next day Lizzie drew a picture of her and Jessica and it said "best friends forever." At the end of the book, Jessica and Lizzie fix their issues. I would use this book to teach contractions. Some of the contractions it includes are: wasn't, that's, wouldn't, don't, let's, there's, didn't, she's, you're, etc. I would have students go on a "contraction hunt" to find all of the contractions they can. After the students have found the contractions, they will have to write what two words make up that contraction.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jessica and Lizzie are best friends and do everything together. But then Lizzie starts copying from Jessica’s spelling test and takes credit for the poem Jessica wrote. Jessica doesn’t want Lizzie to be made and lose her as a friend, so she doesn't say anything. But, Jessica has finally had enough! She tells her teacher everything that has happened. Jessica was sure she would be losing Lizzie as a friend, but just the opposite happned. Lizzie apologized for using Jessica, and they became closer friends than what they were. This book can teach students the concept of lying and how wrong it is. This book can be used in the classroom to show students the importance of doing their own work and not having others do it for them. The pictures are also very descriptive and realistic. Definitely a book that can be used in the classroom to serve many purposes!

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Theme: cheating, tattling, friendship, character education

A fun book that I think will grab students' attention right from the cover. It is a topic that is always coming up one way or another in a second grade classroom. What is cheating? What to do when someone cheats? What is tattling? What if that person is a friend of yours and you don't want to tell on a friend? I Love when I can use characters in a book to talk about behaviors I see in the classroom.

Classroom connection: I am excited to use this book at the beginning of the year when we talk about the difference between telling and tattling and to refer back to it through out the year.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

A clear, straight-forward message about cheating. Jessica's BFF, Lizzie, starts copying her work. The situation escalates, leaving Jessica confused and conflicted. Everything is revealed to the teacher, Lizzie realizes that cheating is bad, and the two remain BFFs.

Recommended for grades 1 - 3. The story and message are a bit simple for older students. I appreciate the fact that Lizzie's motivation for cheating are hinted at but there are no real consequences beyond being sent to the thinking desk.

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of "I Repeat, Don't Cheat" starts with two little girls that are best friends. They do everything together at school and even at home, but soon enough Jessica starts to notice that Lizzie doesn't like doing things by herself. Lizzie starts taking Jessica's ideas without her permission and it causes the girls' friendship to hit a rough patch. This story teaches children about the true meaning of friendship and what it means to be a good friend. I would probably use it during a morning meeting with younger students when talking about key concepts like respect or trust.

[Shelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is more of a lesson on talking about your feelings than on not cheating. In the story one young girl, Jessica, is upset that her friend Lizzie is doing some not so friendly things. These things cause Jessica to worry even more then she already does; which is a lot. Instead of talking about the things that Lizzie is doing that bothers her Jessica blows up and lets it all out at once, over a rather smallish thing.

[Taylar Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. This would be a good book for second grade through fifth grade. In the story it tells how one of the friends is doing all she can to help her friend, and ends up doing all the work, and then one day, gets fed up with it, and blows up on her best friend. I'm sure students could possibly relate to this.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honesty--a girl is torn when her friend is cheating.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't like the ending at all.

[LeeAnn G · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend this book to help explain to children how not to cheat. Sometimes a book can explain more than parents can on this issue.

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story focusing on a girl whose friend is cheating and lying. This is helpful for the kids who are in those situations and don't know what to do.

[A. Somers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for a character education lesson.

[Kelly Triplett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hit with fifth graders. There are several opportunities for discussions/lessons: friendship, respect, cheating, tattling, helping others but no doing for others....

[sash. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good teaching moments for kids who are shy, introverted and generally not very sure of how to deal with friends who sometimes take advantage of them.

[Whitney Zollman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book to teach your students about not cheating, and not to let anyone cheat off of them even if it is their best friend! I will defiantly use this in my classroom!

[Ashley Greenfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book about friendship and how to handle certain issues when they arise.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find the ending a little unbelievable.