{"product_id":"9781442071803","title":"The Best School Year Ever","description":" \"The many readers who laughed out loud at Robinson's last uproarious novel The Best Christmas Pageant Ever will enthusiastically welcome the return of the six cigar-smoking Herdman kids.\"—Publishers Weekly.  \"Beth Bradley, narrator and sixth-grade classmate of Imogene Herdman...explains in hilarious detail how the Herdmans are behind every minor catstrophe that occurs in town...Beth concludes that if Imogene doesn't go to jail, she could become president.  Robinson's readers will look forward to finding out which will be.\"—K. \u003cp\u003e  Children's Choices for 1995 (IRA\/CBC)\u003cbr\u003e1994 \"Pick of the Lists\" (ABA)\u003cbr\u003eWinner, 1996 Colorado Children's Book Award\u003cbr\u003e1996 Flicker Tale Children's Book Award (ND))\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1997 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award (IL)\u003cbr\u003e1997 Children's Choice Book Award (IA)\u003cbr\u003e1997 South Dakota Prairie Pasque Book Award\u003cbr\u003eSouth Carolina's 1996-97 Children's Book Award\u003cbr\u003e1996-97 Golden Sower Award (NB)\u003cbr\u003e1997 Volunteer State Book Award (TN)\u003cbr\u003e1997 Children's Crown Award (NCSA)\u003cbr\u003e1998 PA Young Reader's Choice Award \u003cbr\u003e1998 NM Land of Enchantment Book Award\u003cbr\u003e1998 GA Children's Book Award\u003cbr\u003e1999 Nene Award (HI)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor Biography: Barbara Robinson has written many popular books for children, including \u003ci\u003eThe Best School Year Ever\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMy Brother Louis Measures Worms\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eOther Louis Stories.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Best Christmas Pageant Ever\u003c\/i\u003e is an ALA Notable Children's Book and was filmed as a television movie.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Her Own Words ...\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI grew up in a small southern Ohio town, and began writing when I was in the fourth or fifth grade, as a hobby and for fun. I'm happy to say it's still fun today,probably because every book I write has to be a book that I also want very much to read. I'm like the reader who turns the page to see what happens next - except, of course, that the page is blank. But I then get to fill it up with whatever seems exciting, funny, scary, happy or sad ... and with characters who become as real to me as my next-door-neighbors - so real, in fact, that sometimes they just step in and show \u003ci\u003eme\u003c\/i\u003e 'what happens next.'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSince I'm one of those writers whose story ideas spring more from people than from plot, I spend a lot of time with my characters, so they tend to be people I \u003ci\u003elike\u003c\/i\u003e to spend time with - even the wild and woolly Herdmans, who inhabit two of my books, \u003ci\u003eThe Best Christmas Pageant Ever\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Best School Year Ever\u003c\/i\u003e. I have a special fondness for the Herdman adventures, probably because boys and girls have told me that these are \u003ci\u003etheir\u003c\/i\u003e favorites, and that's the most important thing to me.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSince leaving my small town - though I don't think writers ever really leave the place where they grew up; certainly the flavor of a small town is present in everything I write - I've lived in Pittsburgh, Boston, and, now, in a suburb of Philadelphia where I write, read a lot (boys' and girls' books mostly because they're the \u003ci\u003ebest\u003c\/i\u003e), walk two or three miles a day, watch baseball games and, when the mood is on me, bake terrific cookies!  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Baker \u0026 Taylor, CATS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47043034087664,"sku":"9781442071803","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781442071803","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}