All the boys in EllRay's third-grade class have something they can brag about. Corey's on the swim team, Kevin is super tall, Jared's dad has an ATV. But EllRay's dad is a geologist - not much to brag about. After all, rocks are boring. Then EllRay sees the crystals in his dad's office, and they are really cool looking. If EllRay just "borrows" them to show his classmates, he knows they'd be impressed. And his dad will never have to know. It's a perfect plan . . . until things go awry.

EllRay Jakes is a RockStar! is about a boy who wants to be the coolest kid in his class. He does this by borrowing some of his dad's special crystals and ends up giving them away to his classmates. Then, he has to worry about getting them back before his dad finds out. I liked this book because it teaches a very important message to children about just being themselves. If EllRoy would have just been himself, his classmates would have liked him just as much as they did after he gave them the crystals. It also teaches responsibility. EllRoy had to be responsible and tell his dad that he gave the crystals away. He was also responsible for getting them back. I like the flow of this book as well. There is a clear progression of EllRoy's thoughts and actions. Because of this, throughout the book we get to see EllRoy grow and learn as a person. ( )

We found this to be another good read in the EllRay series. As a parent I like the real world challenges and problems that face EllRay. The classroom scenarios seem plausible. The way situations are handled and solved work well for discussions as we are reading. Most of the middle grade chapter books we read have female main characters so EllRay is a fresh voice to read.

On the whole - two thumbs up for this series. ( )