Mini-Review: Queen of the Toilet Bowl

Queen of the Toilet Bowl
Frieda Wishinsky
Beginner Readers

When Renata is chosen to play the lead role in the school musical, students who used to ignore her start saying hello and congratulating her in the hall. She is happy until it becomes evident that Karin, a wealthy girl who expected to get the lead role, will go to great lengths to ruin Renata's reputation.

Remember my review of Crossover by Jeff Rud? A simply-written, short book aimed for a teenage reader? Queen of the Toilet Bowl is another one of those published by Orca, whose goal is to help older readers learn English without having to read baby books. In the bookstore I work at I get asked to recommend a lot of these so I've been reading some. 

A sweet story, Queen tells tale of a South American immigrant who is targeted by the Queen Bee at her school on the account of her mother being a cleaning lady. I liked Renata, and she dealt with the bullies smoothly and maturely, so the book comes along with a good message. While not patronizing,  it's mildly cheesy.

Cover and title comments: They're not really appealing, therefore a mistake in my opinion, but they tie in well. 

Have a great week!
Esty