3.5
President of the Whole Fifth Grade
ByPublisher Description
In this fun middle-grade novel from the author of The Kayla Chronicles, Brianna Justice has big dreams of following in her chef hero’s footsteps—and the first step is to become the president of her class.
Start counting your votes . . . and your friends.
When Brianna Justice's hero, the famous celebrity chef Miss Delicious, speaks at her school and traces her own success back to being president of her fifth grade class, Brianna determines she must do the same. She just knows that becoming president of her class is the first step toward her own cupcake-baking empire!
But when new student Jasmine Moon announces she is also running for president, Brianna learns that she may have more competition than she expected. Will Brianna be able to stick to her plan of working with her friends to win the election fairly? Or will she jump at the opportunity to steal votes from Jasmine by revealing an embarrassing secret?
This hilarious, heartfelt novel will appeal to any reader with big dreams and the determination to achieve them.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesPresident of the Whole Fifth Grade Reviews
3.5
“Good book”
“This was a fun trip down memory lane. The first time I read President of the Whole Fifth Grade, it was assigned reading for my 5th grade gifted class: we had to read all the 2012-2013 Sunshine State Young Readers (SSYR) picks for class credit. I remember this book being one of the SSYR books that I enjoyed the most. Fast forward about 12-13 years later, and I still enjoyed this book as an adult.
The best element of President of the Whole Fifth Grade is easily Sherri Winston's characterization of Brianna. Brianna is a likable protagonist who feels like a real kid. She has relatable goals, a strong bond with her friends, and a fun personality. She also gets a bit carried away, letting her intense ambition to win the election and stick it to her archnemesis, Jasmine Moon, get in the way of her friendships and even her own integrity and code of ethics. Brianna can be a bit bratty and catty at times, but those low points are part of what makes her an interesting and well-rounded character, especially since Winton does such a good job writing Brianna's redemption arc, showing that, at the end of the day, friendship and kindness are what matter most to Brianna. I also enjoyed how Winston seamlessly integrated both facts about the US Presidents and recipes for Brianna's cupcakes into the narrative. These additions made the story feel even more connected to Brianna and her goals.
One last praise I have for President of the Whole Fifth Grade has to do with how Winston resolves Brianna's conflict with Jasmine Moon. I fully expected his book to have an overly mushy and undeserved kumbaya ending where Brianna and Jasmine became the best of friends; all the nasty things Jasmine did suddenly forgotten. But Winston's resolution of this conflict was surprisingly mature and realistic. Brianna does put aside her pettiness and apologize to Jasmine for being hostile, even going out of her way to try to stop another classmate from embarrassing her in front of the whole school. Jasmine, unfortunately, continues to be cruel to Brianna. But instead of trying to force a reconciliation or friendship between the two girls, Winston shows that it's okay to move on from toxic people by having Brianna keep a respectful distance from Jasmine, focusing instead on growing her friendships with Lauren, Becks, Sara, and Raymond and being the best class president and businesswoman she can be. As someone who has had to cut several toxic "friends" out of my circle several times throughout my life, I felt seen by the ending to this book, and I think Winston effectively communicated a difficult but important lesson to her young target audience.
With all of this being said, I do have a few problems with President of the Whole Fifth Grade. Firstly, I think Jasmine Moon was severely underdeveloped. She's one-dimensional and comes off like nothing more than a stereotypical catty mean girl, and while I applaud Brianna for being the bigger person and trying to make things right with Jasmine, I would've been okay with her not extending the olive branch because there are absolutely no moments where Winston tries to justify Brianna's apology by humanizing Jasmine or explaining why she's so cruel and two-faced. I also thought that Brianna's reconciliation with her friends, while nice, needed more development. Lauren, Sara, and Becks do apologize, but they don't really take accountability for how they've hurt Brianna's feelings by icing her out and siding with a girl (Jasmine) who's been nothing but mean to Brianna. I also wish Winston would've given Brianna a moment where she expressed how hurt she felt by her friends's actions to their faces, as that would've opened the door for a better reconciliation. Lastly, while I applaud Mrs. Wetzel for trying to teach her son why it's wrong to bully others, the way she goes about teaching this lesson is more than a little messed up. Publicly humiliating your child in front of his teachers and classmates is just as cruel as what Raymond tried to do to Jasmine, and it definitely crossed a line for me. I'm not a mom yet, but if and when I am able to adopt, I would never treat my child with such contempt and disrespect. Returning nastiness with even more nastiness isn't a good lesson to teach kids, and I really wish Winston had exluded this scene and kept Mrs. Wetzel's lesson as nothing more than a serious conversation between mother and son about how to treat others
Overall, President of the Whole Fifth Grade holds up for the most part. I had fun with 95% of this book, and I would definitely recommend it to all audiences. But parents should definitely read this book with their children and have conversations about the lessons that aren't taught the way they probably should've been.”
“Read this to my 5th graders and they didn't want me to stop when it was time to move on”About Sherri Winston
Sherri Winston is the author of President of the Whole Fifth Grade (a Sunshine State Young Readers Award selection), President of the Whole Sixth Grade (a Kids' Indie Next pick), President of the Whole Sixth Grade: Girl Code, The Sweetest Sound, and The Kayla Chronicles. She lives with her family in Florida.
Other books by Sherri Winston
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