Persuading Miss Doover

K-Gr 2—Friends sit together, right? Conspiring with his best buddy, Jack persuades Samir to place a whoopee cushion on their teacher's chair, and both receive a new seat assignment far away from the other. The prank also generates a new class assignment from their perceptive teacher—to write a four-sentence persuasive essay: "Write about what you want to happen. Then give two reasons why. Then tell why again, in a slightly different way." Jack, of course writes about sitting next to his friend Samir. With Miss Doover's continued instructions and constructive criticism, the boys, their classmates, and readers receive additional help in shaping an argument… use good grammar, no hyperbole, be calm, be clear, be kind, no bribery or threats. Dialogue presented in speech bubbles, text that defines newly introduced words, and examples of persuasive writing join colorful cartoon images of an ethnically diverse classroom in a mixed media presentation drawn from a variety of perspectives with inserted writing examples.