Lit Circle Books

         We do Literature Circles in class and this time around, I had "The Lemonade War."  A picture of the book is at the left.  The story?  About a boy named Evan and his sister, Jessie.  It took place right before the beginning of school, and the brother and sister had just learned that Jessie would skip a grade and be in Evan's fourth grade class.  This leads to an odd period of time where Evan is moody and spends an awful lot of time on his own.  Finally, he cracks and tells his sister Jessie, whom he's loved and been loyal to all his life, that he hates her.  That's when things get really interesting.  
It was Jessie who came up with the bet: whoever can make the most money selling lemonade to neighbors before the fourth of July fireworks the fireworks gets the loser's earnings.  When Evan protested that she already had $10.00 which, Jessie knows, is already 10% of the final winnings, Jessie promises that she will keep it separate.  Thus, the Lemonade War begins.  Jessie was my favorite character.  She was a bit like me except I understand people better and she was smarter.  Of course, that's not saying much seeing as she is practically a genius at math.  But sometimes, she seems so like me that I feel like I've been cloned and one of me has been stuck in this book.  You start to root for the characters, to believe in them.  I think all good books should do this, and The Lemonade War has gone above and beyond anything I have ever read before.