The Hero of Third Grade by Alice de La Croix was illustrated by Cynthia Fisher. It is a really quick read, less than 100 pages with lots of space on the page and some pictures scattered throughout. This book was a cute story about a boy named Randall. His parents just separated, and he and his mom just moved to a new home. He hates his new school and doesn't know that he will ever fit in, since the school year is well on it's way and everyone already seems to have their own friends.
Randall watches a movie with his mom the first week of school and gets the idea to be the Scarlet Pimpernel at school - a hero who does things in secret. He begins writing secret notes to people signed with a red flower stamp. He still has no friends, but he starts to enjoy going to school, constantly looking for things he can do as the Scarlet Pimpernel.
This story includes all the things you might expect from an elementary school story including class bullies, group projects, and homework, as well as others to keep things interesting like pet trees, a monkey, a thief, and a runaway dog.
I really enjoyed the message of this book. When Randall stopped thinking about how terrible his life was and that he wasn't going to ever make friends and started looking for things that he could do to help people, he started enjoying school and it started looking like things were going to be okay.
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