Mitch and Amy audiobook

My favorite chapter is when Mitch finally realizes that reading can be fun. Clearly perfectly captures the everyday wonder of that moment for all of us.

A wonderful, classic Beverly Cleary. There is something about the characters' innocence that lacks so much in contemporary books. Reading this, I wish that children could still leave without all the unnecessary gadgets and electronics that add very little to the human experience.

We all laughed so much aloud in this one and it was the magical car audiobook experience I've dreamed of.

In just under a month, Beverly Cleary will celebrate her 100th birthday, and for well over half a century, her books have delighted readers everywhere with their believable and sympathetic characters and the ordinary situations they face.Mitchell and Amy Huff are twins just starting fourth grade. Like many pairs of twins, these two have very different personalities. Amy is an enthusiastic Girl Scout who loves reading and is very good at arts and crafts. Mitch is something of a clown who loves all things mechanical and hates sitting still.And like siblings everywhere, Mitch and Amy take great pleasure in annoying each other. Mitch has a lot of trouble reading, and his mother regularly has him practice reading aloud with her. Amy, though she knows she shouldn't, somehow can't resist sitting in on these sessions, ostentatiously reading her own thick novels and smugly announcing how many pages she has read, while Mitch stumbles along in what he considers babyish books.And the twins will happily argue over anything, from who can read Dear Abby's advice first to whose fifty-cent piece is shinier. This drives their parents up the wall.But Mitch and Amy still care about each other, and when the chips are down, each can count on the other for support and understanding. Amy has great difficulty learning her multiplication tables, not least because she wastes so much of her energy avoiding the task, but when she is finally forced to tackle them, Mitch surprises her by offering to help.Mitch's biggest problem this year is Alan Hibbler, a smug, smarmy boy a year older. Mitch had managed to embarrass Alan twice as the school year began, and Alan has now dedicated his life to making Mitch's life miserable. Mitch tries his hardest to ignore Alan's taunts and tricks, but he is beginning to get angry and very tired of the constant bullying; he is too proud to tell his parents or a teacher of the problem, and too prudent to confront Alan himself. But as his patience wears thin, it's clear that a showdown is inevitable.The twins gain a new friend and ally in Bernadette Stumpf, a seemingly eccentric and unkempt girl in their grade whom they regard with a mixture of annoyance and admiration. When Amy and Bernadette are paired up to take their turn at providing refreshments for their next Girl Scout meeting, Amy is surprised to learn that Bernadette and her five older brothers do most of the family's cooking and housework themselves because their father works and their mother is a full-time student. This explains Bernadette's rumpled appearance and precocious self-reliance, and Amy rather envies her messy, comfortable house and her competence in the kitchen.The book was written in the sixties, and it shows in several delightful ways: the fourth-graders are excited to find that their new classrooms are equipped with slide projectors, TV's, and record and cassette players. Amy is very surprised that Bernadette's mother is in college, and her own mother is a stay-at-home mother who enjoys "The French Chef" on TV. But the kids' rivalry, the gloriously messy pinata-making party Amy and her two best friends have, Mitchell's troubles with the insufferable Alan, and their everyday struggles and triumphs, are timeless.

So, it is a tiny bit old fashioned on gender roles- but, still this is a wonderful book. Mitch and Amy are pretty standard characters- but, their mother plays a more fun role in this book. Additionally, there is a wonderful side character named Bernadette that I really wish Cleary had written an entire series about. There are a few great moments in this book- one is when Amy takes responsibility for her own learning and corrects her delay in multiplication. That's a great moment about taking responsibility for your actions and using your time outside of school to catch up on subjects that take more time for you to learn. I swear, there are college age adults that need to learn from Amy! Nobody blames the teacher, Amy just acknowledges that she needs to spend more time on the subject. Mitch is a slow reader and reluctant through most of the book- but, there's this wonderful moment when he discovers a book that finally gets him into reading. We've all had that one book that turned us into readers, so that was a great moment. My favorite though was the interactions with Bernadette. Bernadette is a sturdy, competent character. She is who she is without apology or excuses. Her mom keeps a messy house because she's gone back to college and Bernadette isn't all sulky about it. Bernadette has older brothers and an assigned day that she cooks dinner. There are adult chores that she has to do because her mother is trying to finish school to help the family income and she's not all sad and bitter about it. Goodness, I sure wish there was a whole series about Bernadette.

"Mitch and Amy" is one of those books that will always remain timeless within children's literature. It tells of the trials and tribulations of Mitch and Amy Huff, nine-year-old twins who are about to enter the fourth grade at Bay View School.I first read "Mitch and Amy" back in the fourth grade. Our school library had a birthday tree where students could have a paper ornament on a tree to indicate their birthday. One could also pick a book from a box and have a placard placed inside in honor of his or her birthday. I'd chosen "Mitch and Amy" since it was the only one by Beverly Cleary in the box, and I'd already read all of the Henry Huggins series.The story takes place around the San Francisco Bay. The book has ten chapters, and is told by the twins in the third person. Mitch's point of view is in the odd chapters while Amy's is in the evens. Summer is ending and both twins are looking forward to the new school year and the fourth grade. So are Mr. and Mrs. Huff who have to endure the endless bickering of their children.One thing that I've noticed is how one twin's strength seems to be the other's weakness, sort of like the yin-and-yang symbol. Mitch breezes through multiplication tables while Amy gets easily frustrated with them. Yet Amy excels at reading and spelling while Mitch has to plod along reading aloud to his mother. He'd rather go outside and either bike or ride his skateboard around the neighborhood or, when the school year starts, play kickball before classes begin for the day. Meanwhile, Amy enjoys working on home ec. and arts and crafts projects as well as plays the cello. (Mitch plays the French horn.)Mitchell also has a tendency to build things. The book starts out where he's building a homemade skateboard. He's excited to road-test it, and it leads to disaster not by his own volition. Mitch runs into the school bully Alan Hibbler, a fifth grader, and his buddy Dwight Hill, who's going into junior high school. Alan smashes Mitch's skateboard, then he and Dwight make the younger boy run and throw the wrecked pieces at him. Mitch flees the scene, then realizes that he'll not only have to end up dealing with Alan at school but on the way there.September and the school year soon begin. At first, Mitch and Amy were both excited for school to start. Now they have their own issues to deal with than just each other. The quibbling siblings are off to a rude awakening. Mitch still struggles with spelling and his aversion to reading books though he's still the math whiz. Amy, though she's still in top reading group in her class, continues to have problems with multiplication which increases vastly when her class gets tested with audio-visual aids.Alan Hibbler resumes tormenting Mitchell on the way to school. Mitch tries to ignore and avoid the bully--mostly to no avail. Alan delights in throwing eucalyptus buds at Mitch and stepping on his shoes. He coerces the younger boy into a game of "Chicken" with their bikes one day after school. Mitch manages to avoid a serious accident though Alan--who gets badly injured by his own undoing--vows revenge on him.Outside of the multiplication tables, Amy has her own share of troubles. She and Mitchell continue to goad at one another whenever the opportunity arises. Amy thinks that her brother gets in the way whenever she has her friends over. Mitch butts in when Amy and her friends Marla and Bonnie are trying to earn badges for their Girl Scout troupe by scrubbing the Huffs' kitchen floor though he ends up saving the day for the girls. The three girls later work on a pinata for their class Christmas party--and they forget to put a hole on the top for the pinata. Since Mrs. Huff won't drive the girls and their "fine feathered friend" to school (due to a neighborhood pact the moms made the summer before), Mitch walks behind the girls to keep an eye out for Alan Hibbler. Alan fails to wreck the pinata and, as revenge, starts to torment Amy as well as Mitch. Despite being at opposite ends of the spectrum, it's time for the twins to unite and stand up to Alan--who's now their common enemy!It's obvious that Beverly Cleary based this book on her own twin children--her son Malcolm and her daughter Marianne. I would assume that Mr. and Mrs. Huff are drawn from Mr. and Mrs. Cleary and their own experiences on raising twins. Over the years, I've often wondered if these ten chapters are based from what Marianne and Malcolm have endured during the fourth grade.Beverly Cleary writes another timeless book for children that will continue entertaining generations of kids and their parents. "Mitch and Amy" is one of my favorite books of hers. As with Henry Huggins and Ramona Quimby, it would have been nice for Beverly Cleary to have also written a series on "Mitch and Amy". It could have continued to finish their year in fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, junior high school, etc. You get the idea! But it's one of those books that you can take off of the shelf and continue reading every now and then and never get tired of it!Rating: *****

I've always avoided this title because I thought it was one of Cleary's teen romances. I don't like teen romances. But Mitch and Amy are twins, not boyfriend and girlfriend. I fell in love with the competent Bernadette in this book. The way she deals with the bully is a thing of beauty, but so is the aftermath.One interesting effect of going through all the Cleary books in a row is seeing how certain small anecdotes get recycled (sewing pants for stuffed elephants, for instance, and the "shave and a haircut" postscript to a processional) and subtly changed. I think maybe these are the anecdotes that are truest to life. Cleary's writing has an immediacy and a charm that somehow I missed as a kid. And she's also the perfect model on how to write books that never need to be scrubbed and updated because of brand names- while I know who the French Chef is, it doesn't matter a whit because it's a descriptive name. And the curly-haired lady on TV who tries on skis in her living room could be anyone on a sitcom, not just Lucy. And so on.

This book Mitch and Amy by Beverly Cleary is about two twins (Mitch and Amy) and they are their own enemies. This book reminds me of me and my older brother. we are always fighting, but at then when its over I always end up feeling bad for the way that I acted. But then later we always forget about it and move on. I gave this book a five star because it was just the right reading level and I can relate so it was interesting. In the book they each have their own problems. Mitch has trouble reading and Amy has trouble with multiplication. And they are always bugging each other about it. so me and my brother are always bugging each other about stuff like that. So yes, i would recommend this book to readers who like realistic fiction and a little bit of comedy.

Mitchell and Amy Huff are fraternal twins, who, like any fraternal opposite sex twins, have nothing in common. Amy is a good reader, but multiplication is the bane of her existence. Mitch is good at math and building things, but reading his not his strong suit. The duo are beginning fourth grade, and finally have something in common - the school bully, Alan Hibbler, who hides his insecurities through his bullying behaviors. Can Amy and Mitch overcome their weaknesses AND their common enemy?I read all of the Ramona Quimby books between 3rd and 5th grades (up to Ramona Forever), as well as the Ralph S. Mouse series, Ellen Tebbits, and Dear Mr. Henshaw, but managed to completely overlook a story about fraternal twins. This is a topic I can completely relate to being a fraternal twin (with a brother). Beverly Cleary nailed the dynamic of same-age siblings who have nothing in common - my brother and I couldn't possibly be any more different, but we did deal with common annoying kids in elementary school, especially when we were the same age as the Huff twins. I found myself identifying with Amy, especially being lousy at multiplication - I got hung up on long division in sixth grade! I can definitely see some of my own brother in Mitchell, and the little moments where the two of us got along good. This story was truly a slice-of-everyday-life that makes Cleary's stories so good. I highly recommend "Mitch and Amy," because even when you aren't a twin, the struggle of siblings is always real!As Mitch said in his book report, "read the book!"

I remember reading this when I was young and wishing I had a twin. Later, as I grew up, I half hoped I'd have twins that I could name Mitch and Molly (after my favorite American Girl doll). I liked the sibling interactions in this book since we haven't seen that much. Beezus and Ramona are the only siblings we've seen (besides the older ones in Cleary's young adult books), and they had a different dynamic due to the age gap.Mitch and Amy don't seem to get along much, but after they face the same bully alone and then together, they start to realize how important they are to each other. I really liked seeing how the bully issue was handled in the 60s. Each situation the twins found themselves in was interesting and often amusing. For a standalone book, the depth of character development is outstanding.

** spoiler alert ** What I thought about the book Mitch and Amy was that it was a really good book. I really liked how Amy went and stuck up for her twin brother Mitch when Allen Hibbler tried to bully Mitch by breaking Mitch's skateboard that he built by hand out of recycled wood and roller skates. I also liked the fact that Beverly Cleary went and took pieces of what each twin was good at by showing that Amy was good at reading and liked to do more arts and crafts and how she made Mitch good a being a math whiz and how he would actually rather go and skateboard most of the time and about how he does not always want to sit and practice reading so he can be come a faster reader so he can go in a lot faster reading group in his forth grade class.

We've enjoyed many of Beverly Cleary's books in the past, especially the Ramona series, but I had not been aware of this one before my eight-year-old daughter found it at the library. I wouldn't say it's quite as good as the Ramona books, but it has many of the same endearing qualities. Written back in the mid-1960s, there's a certain sweet innocence to it. I especially enjoyed and appreciated the relationship between the twin siblings of the title.

I have no recollection of this book from my childhood but already loved Beverly Cleary. Just finished reading too my 9 & 7 year old son & daughter. I'm sure they could relate to much of it. It's the story of normal days for 9 year old, 4th grade twins, I'll bet inspired by Beverly's own twins.

Great stroll down memory lane. Love to re read books I read as a kid.

I liked that when they argued they always made up.