The Report Card

The Report Card

Andrew Clements

The Report Card, by Andrew Clements, is a great story for anybody. Nora Rose Rowley is a genius but doesn’t tell anyone. She's managed to make it to the fifth grade without anyone figuring out that she's not just an ordinary kid, and she wants to keep it that way. But then Nora gets fed up with the importance everyone attaches to test scores and grades, and she purposely brings home a terrible report card just to prove a point. Suddenly the attention she's successfully avoided all her life is focused on her, and her secret is out. And that's when things start to get really complicated. She decides to get bad grades on every one of her subjects to see how big of a deal it is to get bad grades and who will care most about her grades.

The Report Card perpetuates a myth that all "advanced" students are snobs and/or freaks, and that applying yourself and being studious means you have no life outside the classroom. I don't think that's what the author was trying to do, but that's what I took from it because that's how the main character saw things. I can sympathize with the main character's desire not to go into advanced classes or skip grades and instead stay with friends her own age. But I don't like the message that smart kids should dumb themselves down so they can "fit in.” I've met kids who were allowed or encouraged to advance as their academic talents let them, and most of them were pretty happy with it. It should be a mutual decision between the parents and student, and I think that's what the book was trying to get at. But I think the message may have gotten muddled.

Grade Level:

- Suggested: 3rd-6th

- Advanced: 2nd

- Genre: Realistic-fiction

- Key Elements: Report card, grades

- Possible Themes: Don’t push people into a stereotype

Overall Rating: 4/5

Happy Reading!

-The Book Lover-

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