Nothing but Trouble by Jacqueline Davies

Nothing but Trouble Reviews

• 
  Fall-Out-Book-Nerd

  Review to come.
• 
  Alana "Loni"

  Ended a little too abruptly for me, but really liked it overall.
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  Yewon kim

  I have many connections with her.so I can understand easily. And it was fun.that the Little girl about my age, she got much trouble and she made like traps. It was fun to see that all the troubles.
• 
  Leila

  This book is about a girl who lives in an old town, she becomes friends with the new girl, and they start doing hacks. they are a perfect team, and the entire school loves them!!!!!!!!
  
  (The mouse is in the house!)
  
  Genre: Realistic Fiction
  
  I would recommend this book to anyone who likes puzzles, and pranks too.
• 
  Sam

  3.5 -- This book started out a bit slow for me, but as I read on, I laughed quite a bit. Lena and Maggie are clever and cheeky! This is a great middle grade read for those who wants a more quirky and silly reading experience and is definitely recommended!
• 
  Cristi-Lael

  This started out strong, but fizzled for me
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  Bennett

  This book was about hacking!
  
• 
  Montserrat L

  This book is about Maggie and her big scientific ideas with Lena, her new best friend instead of Ally and Emely, Maggie was assigned to the table were Lena was so that is where she met her.
  
  I liked that it has a good hook and writing I did not like how the story is organized.
  
  This story made me feel like I was in it.
  
  The ones that will like this book is the ones interested in school stories.
  
  This book is like Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
• 
  Carol Royce Owen

  A locker filled with tennis balls, ping pong balls falling on the principal's head during an assembly, mini purple explosions on the gym floor, and declarations of a mystery mouse as the culprit of these and many more pranks going on at Odawahaka Middle School, where sixth grade students are the only students. Have the students been forgotten, or is it true the town just doesn't have the money to house them anywhere else than this old building destined to be destroyed next year? One thing is for sure, and that is Maggie is tired of living in this tiny town where everyone knows your comings and goings, and wishes her mom would take them far away. But her mom has become as complacent as the town. When all the craziness starts happening at the school, Maggie and new friend Lena start to believe that big things can happen even in little old Oda M, but there's a new principal at the school, and he's bent on stopping all of the tomfoolery and chaos taking over the school.
  
  I enjoyed this book, and think students will enjoy them, too, but there were many times where I felt like the level of the pranks being pulled were much more than 6th grade students could pull off, no matter how bright they were. I was glad the author addressed the question of where the money came from to pull all of these pranks off, but I just feel as though the students should have been a bit older.
  Still, a good, fun book that I think students will enjoy.
• 
  Elizabeth

  I had a difficult time believing that the main characters were only in sixth grade. While I enjoyed the book, I kept wondering if this was realistic fiction or fantasy. These little girls seem to be waaaaay above the norm when it comes to physical strength and technological know-how. Will kids believe this story?
• 
  Reader Girl

  Similar idea to The Terrible Two, but The Terrible Two is better. This book has a lot of potential and is very good. I wish there were some background - what sort of pranks did Maggie used to do? Why is Lena interested in pranking? Where did Lena come from and why?
• 
  Clarissa

  This is a great book about the friendship and cool prankster activities of two great female characters. There is a lot heart and a lot of fun in this book!
• 
  Sarah

  Nothing But Trouble is nothing but fun. Truly! Admittedly, I often do judge a book but its cover. Noting that author Jacqueline Davies had previously penned the Lemonade War series my snobbish side came out in full force. Passing Lemonade Mouth (aka Puckered Lips?) on the shelves I didn't even give it a second glance. Fortunately, I opted to give Nothing But Trouble a go and was richly rewarded.
  Charming, relatable main characters, Maggie and Lena, take on middle school through a series of highly sophisticated "hacks" leaving the whole school on its toes. Wholesome but not in a overly saccharine Brady Bunch way. As an added bonus there is quite a bit of science involved in their clever schemes which certainly awakened my interests in a subject I've sometimes written off as dull.
  Would make a terrific choice for girls not of the fantasy/sci-fi ilk but not yet gearing up for pre-teen romance either. Laws of physics explained in an engaging manner at the back of the book.
  I just may be puckering up for some Lemonade after all.
• 
  emyrose8

  3.5- I loved the small-town setting of this book. Coming from a small town myself, I could definitely relate. The hacks and the whole school atmosphere, brilliant! And Maggie's friendship with Lena is a match made in heaven (it was almost a little too perfect). The struggles they face with friendships and families felt real (it made me a little mad Maggie let go of her two original best friends so easily).
  
  I understand that you have to suspend reality a bit in a book like this, but something about this book... whether it was the hacks or the perfect friendship or the mostly oblivious adults... something made this book a bit too unbelievable. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
  
  The ending gives the appearance of having everything wrapped up, but I have a feeling there will be a sequel... Lena has to tell us the secret about her parents and Maggie's grandpa's auto parts business still isn't fully resolved .
• 
  Rachel

  I think this book is good so far, it is about a girl named Maggie that lives in a little place called Odawahaka. Maggie lives with her grandfather and loves anything science. There is a new principal at the school, and he is a grumpy one. In the beginning, it is the first day of school for Maggie and shes having trouble talking to her friends, who are closer to each other than her. When Maggie hides in a bush to avoid them, she meets a new girl named Lena. When she gets to school there is tennis balls and cheese everywhere. Someone pranked the middle school. Then, everyone gets their homeroom, and Maggie is in the same homeroom as the new girl. She is also assigned to the same table with her at lunch. The two end up becoming really good friends and come up with hilarious pranks and science experiments together. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves DCF books. This is a good one!
• 
  Dover Free Library

  Tamara Read this Book and Wrote this Review.....This story by Jacqueline Davies is a upper elementary/middle school story of a developing friendship between two girls in a small town setting. The main character lives in a single parent home with her elderly ailing grandfather and spends her time devising elaborate pranks to play on the mean and stupid school principal. Enter the new girl in town, less of an inventor and mechanical engineer, she is artistic and worldly wiser, though she is often left alone by her artistic parents as they pursue their own careers. The story is a veritable "turn the school upside down" by pranking to overthrow the dictatorial school principal. This book has been nominated by the Council for the Vermont's Children's Choice Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award and is recommended by that group for children across Vermont schools and libraries.
• 
  Valerie McEnroe

  Maggie is bummed. Bummed about her boring town. Bummed about her complacent mom and grumpy grandfather. Kind of bummed that she and Kayla don't have much in common anymore. All she has is the "hacking" mentality she inherited from her deceased father, an M.I.T. graduate. When she pulls one of her hacks (aka pranks) on the first day of school, new girl Lena takes notice. Maggie's scientific brain and Lena's artistic brain make a perfect combination to pull off some pretty awesome pranks at her middle school. It's driving the new principal to the brink of insanity and their homeroom teacher, Mrs. Dornbusch, insists "I don't care," in a repetitive way that reminds me of the "Anyone. Anyone." teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day off.
  
  Nothing profound to make this book a standout, but might appeal to rowdy girls who are always looking to spice things up.
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  Judi Paradis

  Maggie is a brilliant hacker, just like her Dad. But she never met him, as he died before she was born. She spends lots of time planning and executing astonishing hacks at her middle school, and funds them by selling auto parts her seriously disabled grandfather has stored in the basement. Her mom appears to be a functional alcoholic, who isn't around too much. So when artsy Lena moves to their teeny town and figures out easily what Maggie is up to, she has a comrade in arms for the first time ever. While some of this plot is not especially plausible, it is well executed. Most kids will find this an engaging read, and it is nice to see a book celebrate fabulous nerd-dom, but also show that sometimes more than brains are needed to solve some problems.
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  Rikki

  Pretty good book about a girl who loves to hack (in this case hacking basically means pranking). She's trying to have a connection with her father, who dies before she was born until a new girl moves in and changes everything about the way Maggie thinks.
  
  Read alike - Secret Hum of a Daisy & Free Verse
  
  Questions to ask students:
  What was the big hack that the teacher has to help stop? Inflatable mouse on football field
  How did the teacher stop the hack? She ran into the field
  How does Maggie know her dad was a hacker? His journal/ handbook
  What does the teacher keep saying? I don't care!
  What does Maggie sell that belongs to her grandfather? Old car parts
  What hack does Maggie's mom pull on her? Wallpaper her door
  
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  Kerri Burns

  A girl named Maggie who “hacks” better known(but don’t tell Maggie!) as pranks. She meets a new girl in town named Lena who also enjoys the thrill of hacking, they team up to hack the school with different things such as tennis balls in lockers, ping pong balls in the gymnasium, balloons from the ceiling and they go out with a “bang” at the end of the football season as the wildcats go undefeated in the season. Their main character is a mouse… who is involved in all of their hacks. At the end of the book, Lena and Maggie’s mom team up to hack Maggie. She comes home to find her room hacked. All along, she thought her mom didn’t care about her, but she found out that she really did. Lena and Maggie became the best of friends over a small prank that started it all. Cute, light hearted book
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  Marlena Nagle

  This was a great and easy book to read. It was small (I finished it in one short morning) and had great details and interesting characters. Even the backstory of Maggie, the mail character, was extremely interesting, and could be a story of its own! The author goes out of her way to make sure the characters aren't flat and have lots of both good and bad experiences to level them out. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes both realistic fiction and characters with a sense of adventure and intelligence.
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  Amanda Weeder

  3.5 stars. After loving The Lemonade Wars series, I wanted to read another book by the author. This one seemed to be written for upper elementary as the characters are slightly older (6th grade vs. 4th grade in TLW). Overall a fun book, great for kids who feel like they are different. A little on the edge of believability, but not too far. The ending was fell a little short, otherwise it would have been a 4 star read.
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  Rayna

  A fun book with two female hackers (pranksters) stuck in a run down middle school in a run down town. This one had just enough laughs and just enough "real life" to keep myself and my son (10 yrs) interested all the way through.
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  Kate

  GIRL HACKERS! with back story!
  I really was charmed by this book. The girls' friendship issues seem right (I teach middle grades) and the essential problems (to matter, to be seen and heard, to trust in parents) are true.
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  Beth

  Extremely funny with a satisfying ending. I especially liked the supporting cast. The characters are sixth graders but the story is appropriate for third grade and up as a readaloud or independent reading book. ROAR!
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  Rebecca Whitney

  This story was super fun!! The narrator was surprising and brilliant, while staying very likeable. I'm going to read it to 4th grade because I know it's going to be a big hit with the kids. Who doesn't love pranks, intrigue, mischief, and a happy ending?