The fourth Arthur book, though he scarcely appears. This time, Francine is in the spotlight. It's nice to see her get a positive showing, here. The moral is that honesty is the best policy, but I'm not sure I agree with the book's position that Francine shouldn't reveal when her friend is lying. Loyalty is one thing, but... anyway, it's still a pretty good book, though I liked Arthur's Valentine a bit better.

Summary:
This book is about two students Francine and Muffy, who are good friends until Muffy lets Francine take the blame for cheating on a test. The teacher believe it is Francine that copied Muffy's work so he asked Francine to washed the board after class everyday so that Francine could not go to the sports team and they were likely to lose the game. At this time, Muffy realized her fault and told the teacher the truth and Francine was able to return to the team and they won the game. Finally them became good friends again.

Genre:
It's a contemporary realistic fiction since it happened in modern life, specifically in a school. The plots and characters like Francine and Muffy are not real people in real life but imagined by the author.

Critiques:
1. The media of this book is color pencil.
2.It's main idea is to be honest in the school and be sencre to your friends. Students can learn those from reading.
The language in this book is clear and easy to understand by students aged from 5~7
3.The language of this book is interesting, especially the dialogues.

Comments on use:
Good for reading aloud and students' role play.
Ask them question: What would you do if you were Francine?

As a huge fan of the television series, I was greatly disappointed at the lazy and sub-par writing of the books. The illustrations are very poorly done as well (especially if you have older editions of the books). Not good. just watch the show; it's on at seven on PBS every morning. ( )

This Arthur book is about going to the first day of school and nervous about who will be your teacher. No one wants to get Mr. Ratburn because they have heard he sleeps in a coffin and drinks human blood. Sure enough, Francine and Muffy got him as a teacher, and Muffy was the teacher's pet. Then the two girls get caught cheating and have to stay after school to clean the board for punishment until someone fesses up to cheating. This book will help students do the right thing by always telling the truth and not to cheat. ( )

Muffy and Francine are friends, but Muffy doesn't act like much of a friend when she cheats off Francine's math test. Mr. Ratburn blames Francine because Muffy's the teacher's pet, but after Francine washes the chalkboards all week, Muffy gives in and tells him the truth so Francine can join the game. Francine saves the game, and Muffy has to spend the next week on the chalkboards. It's a little odd that Francine doesn't really get all that mad at Muffy. ( )