How do you make new friends?
It's hard for Howie Bowles when his family moves to a new town -- what if the kids at school don't like him? "Just be yourself" is his mother's advice, but wouldn't it be easier to be somebody else? Howie doesn't plan on making his classmates believe that he's actually a secret agent named Agent Bean Burger, but somehow that's what happens. Soon everyone is interested in him because he's a secret agent, and it's sort of like having friends, except that the other kids still don't know anything about Howie. And then a case comes along that he has to solve: someone's been spitting out their gum in the drinking fountains at school. In short chapters with snappy dialogue and winning pictures, this is a fast-paced story of a likable, worrisome boy -- a boy who finally does solve the case (it's the principal!), so Agent Bean Burger can take a vacation and Howie Bowles can be himself.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Kate Banks's other children's books include And If the Moon Could Talk. She lives in Monaco.
Isaac Millman is also the author/illustrator of Moses Goes to a Concert. He lives in New York City.
From Publishers Weekly:
Banks's (And If the Moon Could Talk; Spider Spider) slim chapter book introduces eight-year-old Howie, who feels nervous about starting a new school in the middle of his third-grade year. When, after the first day, the boy has trouble making friends, he adopts the identity of Secret Agent Bean Burger (so named for his favorite dinner menu) and things improve. The next day, after his mother drops off his lunch bag with his new name displayed, Secret Agent Bean Burger is summoned over the P.A. system to pick up his lunch, convincing his classmates that he is on assignment. Howie's first big case is to discover who is leaving wads of green bubble gum on the water fountain. Making the solution especially stickyAand far-fetchedAis the sleuth's discovery that the culprit is the principal. Youngsters who have recently made or are facing a move to a new school may well identify with Howie's anxieties, yet his unlikely coping mechanism isn't apt to provide much comfort. Ages 6-8. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherScholastic
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 0439243815
- ISBN 13 9780439243810
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages89
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