Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey - Margaret Peterson Haddix

Story Line - OK - 3

Writing Style - BAD - 1

Characters - OK - 3

Excitement Factor - BORING - 1

Believability for type and topics - OK - 3

Entertainment Factor - BORING - 1

Similarity to other books - FAMILIAR - 1

Cover art/dust jacket Art - OK - 3

Title Relevance - GOOD FIT - 5

Goodreads users gave this book a 3.80. I think it was more deserving of a 2.33.

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Published in April 2012.

Pages: 115.

Number of books by author: 56 Novels.

Genre: YA Fiction.

When Tish and Matt's mom loses her self, she chases after her abusive and thoughtless husband. But when Tish and Matt are left alone with no money or food, Tish decides to tell Mrs. Dunphrey.

You may like this book if you like the following sub-genres:

• Whiney characters

• Domestic violence

• Mental health

This book couldn't have ended sooner - and that's saying something since it was only 115 pages. Without the cover art and title relevance, I would've given this book a 1.85/5. And that's being pretty polite.

As soon as I started reading, I was having flashbacks of Freedom Writers. It was basically the same story - except here, we focus on one student, rather than a classroom of students. The plot is all the same however. An english teacher assigns students to write in a journal x-amount of times a week. A troubled student will learn from their experience in writing and grow fond of the experience.

Having a story line that's already been done before, I was hoping that maybe in 115 pages, I'd see a lot of growth in Tish and Matt - maybe even her mom and dad; hell, I would've settled for growth in Mrs. Dunphrey. But I mostly just got annoyed with the whining. Wah, my husband left me. Wah, my granma died. Wah, I'm 8 and helpless. Wah, my friends are rich. Wah, wah, wah. The entire boo

k is whining. Nothing about this book (with exception of the direct domestic violence) made me feel anything for these characters. I basically was reading some kids' journal and until someone became a punching bag, I mostly felt as if it didn't matter. It felt less like a memoir (which I think is what you're looking for when you write in diary formatting as an author) and more like a statement given to police.

It was believable, sure. But, is it that believable that a 15 year old is the only one bringing in money (since apparently, all the mom does is buy a few groceries for herself every two weeks and wash and fold laundry). Not really. Is it believable that an 8 year old wouldn't tell his teacher that he and his sister are living alone? Not really. Is it believable that the owner of a fast food joint wouldn't take a sexual harassment situation seriously? I'm not really sure. It just felt like these were the extreme ends of any of these situations, and that we are relying on every situation Tish and Matt experience to be an extreme view. Nothing is of a normal experience. It just feels so dramatic that it's hard to believe that someone's luck is just really that horrible.

The entertainment/excitement factors really killed me. I have never felt so robotic in my life. Read a page, turn a page. Read a page, turn a page. It was just dreadfully boring, and with a novel that only has 115 pages and being set in an intimate environment, such as a journal entry, I expected this to be jam packed. I was more excited about the last letter/entry than I was the rest of the book. I was bored for most of the book.

#dontreadthis #dontyoudarereadthismrsdunphrey #margaretpetersonhaddix #2stars