Frenemy Jane Review And Giveaway!!

** We received a copy of Frenemy Jane in return for our honest review. All statements and opinions are my own. **

We have a couple issues here at our house, at our school and we have had our share of bullies, all different types of bullies. 

It hurts a lot to have to send my oldest son to school sometimes and I sometimes wonder if some of his stomach pain isn't caused by stress from a couple kids in his school. He was diagnosed with a few  disorders, like, celiac, gastroperisis, GERD, acid reflux and the latest, possible gall bladder disease.

At the beginning of his school career, everything was fine, he had lots of friends and loved school and did exceptionally well with his grades. After a couple of years, as they grew up a little bit, my son started having bad stomach pains and was often sick, especially at night and in the morning. He always loved school, so, I didn't think there was anything wrong at school, so, we started taking him to our doctor and from there, GI specialists. 

Since he was diagnosed after several tests, I didn't think much about the fact that there could still be a problem with anybody at school.  

One day, I asked about one of his friends and he didn't really seem as happy as he usually was when talking about this specific friend. I figured right away, something was wrong and we ended up having a nice long chat about his "frenemy".

He has a few very close friends, which is nice. I don't know why he decided to stay friends with this other boy at school, who started being mean, calling names, spreading rumors and just randomly making fun whenever he saw my son on the bus or at school. 

As they got older, (they are both in 5th grade now.), his "frenemy" has acquired a few friends, including one of my son's friends, which really hurt him pretty bad. He still has his few close friends and we try to have them over as often as we can and we are dealing with his stomach concerns as best we can. 

To be honest, the school doesn't seem to be much help so, we do our best to include his friends, help with his self esteem, confidence and talk daily about his day, who did what, etc etc. Oh and now he has a younger sister who is attending the same school so, she has been known to stick up for her big brother on the school bus! (We try to teach our children how important family is and how important it is to stick together and help family or friends when they are in need So, we are very proud of her for that!)

Stephanie Sorkin has written some of our most favorite books! This book, Frenemy Jane, is no exception! 

Now, my oldest son may think or act that he is to "big" for this book, BUT, he has heard his little sister read it and even made the remark that, "OMG! That is exactly how it started with ..." 

We love Stephanie Sorkin's books, because she writes about things that affect our children and she does it from a child's point of view! They are very easy to read, so, our 8 year old is always happy to read them, even to her class! (Her classmates were lucky enough this past year to listen to 3 different stories by Stephanie Sorkin and even her classroom received a copy of each book!)

The illustrations are adorable and one of the best parts of this book, is the classroom discussion questions. This is a very important topic and sometimes I don't think that just having a "Bully Week" is enough. I wish, Frenemy Jane was in every classroom in every elementary school. The discussion questions in the back of this book, could be a whole lesson in class that I'm sure any teacher can fit in to their busy schedules! 

There is even a gluten free recipe in the back, which would make a wonderful ending to one of the most helpful books and discussions in class. 

Frenemy Jane follows a little girl named, Maddie, who has a "friend" named, Jane. They knew each other since preschool and have been friends for a while. However, as they get a little bigger, Jane starts to do mean things to Maddie and Maddie starts to question their friendship. 

Luckily, Maddie's mom started to notice something wasn't right, so, Maddie told her mom about her "friend" Jane and they and a nice long talk about their friendship. Maddie went to school the following Monday, with confidence and knew just what she had to do. 

Oh, I almost forgot to mention.. Stephanie Sorkin is donating a portion of the author proceeds to, PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nutley the Nut-Free Squirrel & Chocolate Shoes with Licorice Laces by Stephanie Sorkin

Reading is one of our most important and most loved pastimes at our house. We try to include this in everyday activities, breakfast, snacks, bedtime and even set aside a bit of time each afternoon where everybody just simply reads.
They can choose to read alone, read to a sibling, whatever they prefer, as long as it doesn't involve a screen of any kind and it includes opening a book.
I "met" Stepahnie Sorkin, on Twitter and started reading about her books and she sent us a few copies to read, review and share!
We sent a set of her books, Nutley the Nut-Free Squirrel and Chocolate Shoes with Licorice Laces, for our elementary school library, Genevive's 2nd grade class and we will be taking another set to our community library!
Genevive's class has been giggling like crazy and having so much fun with their set of books! They just had a substitute the other day who also read the books to the class and Genevive is just so delighted that she was able to bring his special gift in for her classroom.
Both of these books are just adorable! Very well written and such awesome illustrations, we have so much fun paging through them and reading them at home.
Both of, Stephanie's books won the "Mom's Choice Awards" and that isn't the only cool thing about Stephanie and her cute children's books!!






 Stephanie donates the proceeds from the sale of this book to, FARE. FARE is dedicated to food allergy research and education. (This is one that I personally love!) We have our fair share of food allergies in our house! Maybe not nuts, like poor Nutley the squirrel, but both my husband and oldest son have Celiac disease and of course, along with that comes, lactose intolerance, GERD, acid reflux and a couple more with words that are to giant for me to even guess at ;)









I don't think we have an actual favorite out of these 2 books. They are both wonderful books! Deegan and Genevive have been reading these quite a bit and giggle each time as if they just read them for the first time. It's so cute!
We also love the recipes in the backs of the books.
Nutley shares his favorite recipe for  yummy nut free banana bread and of course, the other recipe is for chocolate shoes with licorice laces :D

Nutley is adorably sweet and all of the little ones fell in love with him! In this book, you get to follow, Nutley, through his experience of finding out that he is allergic to nuts. I think the best part was when, Nutley, found out that his friends also have food allergies and they sat and talked about their allergies, their favorite foods and discussed how they will look out for one another and make sure they keep their buddies, safe.

Chocolate Shoes with Licorice Laces is another hit at our house and in the classrooms! Genevive especially loves both of these books because she can read them out loud to her little brother. They are both very easily read and right on her level.
Even though she can't read about these chocolate shoes without cracking up, both her and her little brother, Deegan, decided they would like to have chocolate shoes too.

Both of these books have made it to the tip top of our bookshelves because they are new favorites and will stay that way for a long, long time. They will both end up as classic stories and we really hope to see more books by Stephanie Sorkin!