The Mighty Miss Malone
by Christopher Paul Curtis
This is a second to third grade level book based loosely on the Great Depression and childhood poverty. It is a funny, sad, and an inspiring book that leaves the reader feeling like the main character needed to be stronger or have more influence to affect change. The Malone family show strong bonds and coping mechanisms when dealing with the blows life throws yet as the character states, poverty is a tragedy and the story lends itself to discussions about poverty today.
The book offers many opportunities for second or third graders to improve reading skills by developing reading activities that go along with researching and reading about the Great Depression or working on a community project that might be related to local poverty and economic depression.
The advanced vocabulary in the book may make it difficult to read for low end readers in this grade level but lends itself to added vocabulary lessons and further worksheets to aid in comprehension for the readers. The book is definitely worth the time and effort making it a good classroom book for upper second or third grade.
Title: The Mighty Miss Malone- Author: Christopher Paul Curtis
- Jacket art: Eva Kolenko
- Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books, Imprint of Random House
- Reviewer: Terri Foreland
- Fiction: historical
- Age 8-12
- ISBN: 978-0-385-73491-2
- Pages: 309
