Tutor Tot: Judy Moody Goes to College by Megan McDonald

She, Judy Moody, had to take a note home. A note that said she needed extra help. A note that said she was hazy-not-crazy about math. Fact Of Life: She, Judy Moody was a tutor tot.

Judy Moody is in a mood. Not a good mood. Definitely not a Math-i-tude. Definitely a Bad-i-tude. Judy sees hours of counting beads and gluing macaroni to construction paper in her future. But the prevailing Mom-and-Dad-i-tude is that she will be tutored in math. End of Discussion.

But when her parents take her to the local college campus to meet her new tutor, Chloe Canfield, Judy gets a big surprise. The first tutoring session means playing "The Game of Life" as Chloe, nicknamed "C Squared" for her double-initialed name, points out all the real life uses of math concepts around her. There's not a flash card or macaroni shape in sight, and Judy is swept up in the glamour of her new college friend and her exciting college life. Tutoring sessions in the campus cafe, with lattes and hot chocolate on the side, turn Judy's mood into glad-i-tude, and Judy morphs into a third-grader who dresses and talks with collegiate style.

Spending a trendy Saturday with Chloe, Judy uses Choe's mood nail polish on her toes, eats veggie burgers at the campus canteen, hangs out at the Peace Rally, and makes a striking Warhol-styled pop art bandaid print in Chloe's art class which wins an honorable mention at the college's art show. Oh, and Judy Moody's math-i-tude takes a turn for the better as she gets down with Chloe on the "crucial" concepts.

She, Judy Moody, had a brand-new attitude. It was grat-i-tude.

Megan McDonald's latest in this notable series, Judy Moody Goes to College (Book #8) (Judy Moody), maintains the high level of this beginning chapter series which feature a girl with plenty of attitude who, in her new college vocabulary,* moves from from brat-i-tude right into RAD-i-tude. As Publishers Weekly puts it, "It's hard to imagine an attitude that Judy Moody couldn't improve!"

*Appended is Judy Moody's Not Webster's New World Collegiate Dictionary which defines such collegiate lingo as the bomb, crucial, for your 4-1-1, peace out, peeps, 'rents (parents), and wicked.