Third Grade Angels

Third Grade Angels
by Jerry Spinelli
Scholastic, 2013. 134 pgs. Fiction

The rhyme goes: "First grade babies! Second grade cats! Third grade angels! Fourth grade rats!"
Spinelli has already written about Suds Morton's adventures in "Fourth Grade Rats," and here we find out what Suds was like in Third Grade. He likes his teacher. She gives out halos to her third grade angels, one at a time, after the first month of school, depending on their behavior. Suds wants to be first at everything, including the first to get a halo, so he is on his better-than-best behavior even when bad-kid Joey bothers him from the seat behind him, and when the other kids get bored with angel-like behavior and kind of slope out of the competition. Suds even behaves at home, because he thinks Mrs. Simms has spies there. No more calling his little sister Zippernose, or not eating his peas. Suds figures he's got it in the bag when he saves a dog from being run over in the street. But something totally unexpected happens on First Halo of the Year Day which turns Suds' notions upside down and teaches him something very important about what makes a person a winner.

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