Cell Phoney: A Picture Book About Using Cell Phones Responsibly

I purchased this book that was picked out by my granddaughter who is a 5th grade teacher. She uses it in her classroom and it is in the library in her room.

This book gets mixed reviews. I very much like author Julia Cook because she knows exactly what issues children face, and as a school counselor, she knows how to manage problems and what guidance to give. The problem with this book is, the first part reads like a lesson and is not always clear, and that will lose the attention of many kids. But the second half is hilarious. In the second part we get to see a young girl who's been told by her mom what not to do with the phone...basically ignore everything the next day. She gets into just about every scrape possible; for instance, walking into a tree because she's paying too much attention to her phone. By the way, I think this book would be applicable to 4th graders, too, who are more likely to have cell phones. Some of the cell phone rules had me puzzled. "If your voice only comes through a cell phone" is, I think, a way of saying kids should talk to people directly instead of just via the phone. And in another rule; do you tell a youngster not to use the phone when driving a car? Still, the second part of the book kind of makes up for lapses in the first half. The pictures are great and add to the hilarity.

Great for tweens when given a cell phone. Easy read, great message. Explained at kids level. They laugh, but they get it.

My child enjoys most of Julia Cook's books. This was a little boring. The word children is misspelled. The book spelt it childern.

I enjoyed the cell phone rules included In the story. Students enjoyed acting out parts of the story!

This is another good book from Julia Cook, however it seems better for home / parent use than for school / counselor use. The book discusses rules that the mom has for her daughter's cell phone use and a contract the daughter must sign. These are wonderful, but I fill like should come from the home / parent instead of school.

I am a huge fan of the author and buy almost every book, but this one was not as good as her others. Although it does give a few good tips, the story does not develop into how cell phones bring about deep consequences. It lightly brushes over the topic of the importance of what you post, but that's about it.

I love Julia Cook! She has the best books on so many different topics. This book is great to use with my 3rd and 4th graders who are receiving their first cell phones.