Just Juice

by Karen Hesse and Hesse Karen

Book Overview

Juice Faulstich lives with her pa and ma and four sisters in the North Carolina hills. Working with her hands comes easy to Juice, but not school. This year, she's back again in Miss Hamble's third grade. Letters and numbers still don't make sense to her, even though she's the biggest kid in class.Juice skips school when she can, and spends the day with her pa. When he gets an official-looking letter, he asks Juice's little sister to read it--he says...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0590033832
• ISBN13: 9780590033831
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: Scholastic
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Great Book for Reluctant Readers (and everyone else!)

This is the first book I have read by Karen Hesse, and it probably won't be the last. I am a sixth-grade reading teacher for struggling readers, many of whom are English language learners. I used this book in the classroom for the first time this semester, and my kids really enjoyed it. The language is approachable without being low, and the tone is sweet and simple without being sappy or emotional. And the plot? Well, we got to the last quarter of the story and the students, who will gripe and complain whenever they have to pick up a book, were on the edges of their seats with anticipation. It was a this-is-why-I'm-a-teacher experience! The story of the Faulstiches is told from Juice's perspective: she is the nine-year-old middle child of five sisters, and she has trouble staying in school. Her Ma is pregnant; her Pa is out of work but an excellent machinist. They have very little, but are a happy family. Several challenges to the family's security and happiness come along at once, but in the end, they are all better for it. And the reader is better for having read it. I highly recommend adding this book to your library.

A Moving Experience

I used this book as a read aloud with my third grade class in New York City. A few of the children have been struggling with reading since they began school, and I felt that those students might connect with the main character in some way, shape, or form. I was not prepared for the profound impact this book would have on all of my students. As a class, they were moved to tears towards the end of this story. During our book talks, I watched children who have hesitated at speaking during literature discussions finally raise their hands and share their thoughts. They know a person like Juice, some are just like Juice. This book broke down an invisible wall in my classroom, allowing my children to have an open, honest dialogue about their own difficulties with reading and matters of the heart. "Just Juice" has changed the way many of my children view themselves as readers, students, and little people. I thank you, Karen Hesse. My students thank you.

Good and Interesting book

I think Just Juice was an interesting book because Just Juice had a lot of action and Just Juice never got boring. One of the exciting parts of the book Is how Juice's family is going to pay their taxes.Another exciting part of the book is how Juice could not read. So she got held back a year. She felt really discourage that she could not read. I thought that was interesting because I was thinking how is she going to learn how to read.The Last exciting part is Ma's blood sugar and how Juice helped her read the blood sugar when she was having her baby. I would recommend this book to 5 th grader girls because there are not many boys in the story and to people who have diabetes because it shows how people can help them. The theme of the book is how you works together as a family.

Another great story from Karen Hesse!

9-year-old Justus Faulstich hates going to school. She just doesn't understand letters and numbers. She likes to stay home all day, collecting pine needles for her Ma's basket weaving, and walking with her Pa to bring him out of his depressed state. But when a letter arrives from the city, saying that they no longer own their house, and a police officer begins coming to take Juice to school, things just go straight downhill from there. They only get one chance, and a little bit less than a year's time, to buy their house back. Pa and Juice and her siblings are the only ones who can know, because Ma is in bad enough condition already what with the baby coming and the news that she has an awful medical condition. So it's up to Juice and her father to raise the hundreds of dollars needed in the little time given to them. They start a business (the building of which puts them even more in debt) and begin their attempt at getting enough money to get their home back, but after a few weeks, they start to wonder if they'll ever manage. Could this be the end of their happy home? This book was a great one! Karen Hesse did it again! The illustrations were great too! Everyone who loved Out of the Dust should read Just Juice.

Awonderful book about a loving family coping with stress.

I love this book because it depicts a truly loving family--rare in literature today, without sentimentalizing their economic difficulties and personal problems. The beauty is that the characters accept one another for what and who they really are, while at the same time they help each other to improve. Karen Hesse skillfully avoids the trap that causes many writers to inflict stereotypical "mainstream" goals on their characters, casting the poor or the unprofessional person in an unfavorable light. Juice is a girl secure in her own being, confident in her goal to work as a machinist in her father's shop. Both she and he are illiterate, a problem that will be solved, with the help of an understanding mother and new determination. Literacy, however, will not change the basic goal or the family unity that exists from the introduction of these lovable characters (a mom who takes time to cherish each child and to praise her illiterate, sometimes confused husband as a "business tycoon!"). Literacy will not turn Juice into a doctor or a lawyer; indeed, it will crystalize her personality and enable her to function even better than she already does. The scenes are memorable, the dialogue and narrative in perfect keeping with the setting, and the characters live on long after the story is told.