"My First Best Friend Is a Girl," the first book in the Differentville Series stars Smarty Perkins and Reggie Read, who are seven-year-old best friends. It whimsically embraces the unusual, the colorful, and the special aspects of DIFFERENCE among early elementary children, all different colors and different sizes. The rhyme and rhythm contribute to the story: the magic of friendship between kids, and the challenge of a friendship between a boy and a girl. Chester Westerton, a big boy with a big name, questions a friendship between Reggie Read and Smarty Perkins. Ever the heroine, Smarty Perkins, a seven-year old black girl, teaches Chester the path to friendship requires work; you make friends by kindness, by practicing love; friends don´t just show up in life. -Emergent vocabulary and concept based. The four illustrated books in the DIFFERENTVILLE series star Smarty Perkins and Reggie Read, seven-year-old friends. Each book utilizes the unusual, colorful, and special aspects of DIFFERENCE: "The Hullaballou at the Differentville School," "The Brouhaha at the Park and the Pool," "The MishMash at the Soapbox Derby Dash." They unfold with rhyme, alliteration, repetition, and fun-sounding words, presenting lessons that challenge children of this age (5-9). The books use BIG words in wonderful context. Book II-THE HULLABLALLOU AT THE DIFFERENTVILLE SCHOOL surrounds the whimsical experiences of six very different children, a hyperactive kid, a Russian speaker, a Japanese-American boy, a Black girl, an Albino boy, and a Hispanic girl, plus a pesky little brother. Differentville is a colorful town with a popcorn farm, the Abrakadabra Tire Factory, the Fukimoto Flower Farm, and the K-12 music school.
About the Author: The Queen of Whimsy, Dr. J. Mauree Hudson, earned a doctorate in learning psychology from Washington State University. Born and raised in Idaho, Dr. Hudson took off for foreign lands after earning a BA in Spanish from the University of Idaho. She spent a lifetime teaching Spanish, French, and English as a Second Language abroad and in the Pacific Northwest, where she was honored several times for her creative, innovative teaching and writing, Idaho Teacher of the Year and PNCFL Teacher of the Year. Co owner, author and publisher for Toys and Tricks for Teachers for 20 years, Hudson currently serves children in México as a soup kitchen cook and missionary with her husband, Eddie. She is the mother of three adult children, Eddie, Erik, and Amanda.