By: Hillary Homzie/ Illustrated by: Jeffrey Ebbeler

“How far will Ellie May go for a laugh–and a little revenge–when her class is allowed to celebrate April Fools’ Day?”

Quirky and funny second grader Ellie May can’t believe her class is allowed to celebrate April Fools’ Day–so long as it’s done in good fun. She absolutely loves the idea of targeting a certain someone–the practically perfect Ava. Practicing on her parents and sisters, Ellie May begins to brainstorm harmless pranks. Soon enough, good intentions turn the classroom and her home upside-down when fake ants, trick tape, and hidden surprises don’t go as planned. Ellie May may not be perfect like Miss-Know-it-All Ava, or calm and rational like her best friend Lizzy, but she’s good-hearted and eventually realizes that the best trick is to make friends genuinely laugh–at no one’s expense.

Listento authorHillary Homzietalk about the Ellie May series.

If you like this book, youll enjoy these:
Ellie May on President’s Day
Belle’s Journey
Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Invention

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Look Inside

Author & Illustrator

Hillary Homzie, author

Hillary Homzie has written several books for tweens, including Things Are Going to Get Ugly, The Hot List, and Queen of Likes for Aladdin Books of Simon & Schuster. She lives in Napa, California, with her family.

Jeffrey Ebbeler, illustrator

Jeffrey Ebbeler has illustrated more than forty picture books, including Melvin the Mouth. He has worked as an art director, done paper engineering for pop-up books, created large scale murals for schools and churches, and sculpted puppets. He currently lives in Cincinnati, OH. www.jeffillustration.com

Awards & Honors

• Coming soon!

Editorial Reviews

The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Book

Second-grader Ellie May is a live wire with a good heart and less good impulse control. In Ellie May on Presidents Day, shes desperate for her chance to be class flag leader, but when she tries to impress her teacher with her devotion to George Washingtonstyle honesty, she ends up insulting her classmates instead. In Ellie May on April Fools Day, our heroine is jealous of Mo, the class funny guy, and wants to pull off a great prank herself; unfortunately, she takes things too far. Ellie May is a sympathetic heroine in her yearning for recognition (Mos funny. Ava is smart. Youre artsy. I just want to be something too), and the episodic chapters make for approachable and humorous early reading. Spirited, cartoonish black and white art has an appropriately chaotic edge in its interpretation of Ellie Mays diverse classroom and mixed-race family. Since the relevant holiday gets decent coverage in each book, this offers the possibility for solid curricular use as well as an amiable new series friend.

Downloadables

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Details

Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-58089-820-1

Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-58089-929-1

E-book
ISBN: 978-1-63289-677-3 EPUB
ISBN: 978-1-63289-678-0 PDF

Ages: 6-9
Page count: 112
5 1/2x 73/4

Correlated to Common Core State Standards:
English Language Arts-Literacy. Reading Literature. Grade 1. Standards 1-4, 6-8, 10
English Language Arts-Literacy. Reading Literature. Grade 2. Standards 1-4, 6-8, 10

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