A+ Attitude by Stephanie Perry Moore

Morgan Love is not happy. Her father is being deployed to Afghanistan, her mother has remarried, she's got a new baby brother she never asked for, and has to start second grade at a new school. She's determined to make sure everyone around her knows just how unhappy she is by putting on quite the attitude. Throughout the story Morgan must learn how putting on a good attitude, even under trying circumstances, can turn things around for herself as well as the people around her.

As a parent of a girl this age, there were times I wanted to tell Morgan to quit being so selfish. Especially when her mother is up at all hours trying to calm a colicky baby and Morgan whines about how the noise is keeping her up. But Moore is a better woman than I; she understands that a child is innately, unintentionally, selfish and the only way to get through to them often is to let them live and learn from their own mistakes. The adults in Morgan's life constantly assure her of their love and remind her that she should give her troubles to God to help her change her attitude. And their patience works out for them all in the end.

As in the Moores' Alex London series, A+ Attitude is full of educational information for kids. Kids reading this book will learn about parts of speech, prepositions, and mental math as Morgan learns about them and works on them with her friends. Each chapter also introduces vocabulary words, which are reinforced with a word search and glossary. The word searches are tricky too, in some the words are in the puzzle several times with various spellings and kids must make sure they circle the right one.

This book is a great read for any kid. Even if they can't relate to Morgan's specific issues, each child has their own problems and can benefit from approaching them in a healthy manner. I'd love for my own daughter to read it, but she won't read anything that doesn't have a horse on the cover.

I received a copy of this book for the purpose of review.