Book Review – Ginny Louise and the School Field Day

Ginny Louise School Field DayGinny Louise returns for her second childrens book from Disney Press. In Ginny Louise and the School Showdown, Ginny was new to school and discovered a trio of bullies. Ginny overcame their desire to bring her down with her enthusiastic cheerfulness and she’s back to do it again in the sequel, Ginny Louise and the School Field Day.

Ginny Louise is a hedgehog who loves everything about Truman Elementary, including the three troublemakers Cap’n Catastrophe, Destructo Dude, and Make-My-Day May. When the school hosts a field day with awards for the different competitions, Ginny uses her positive attitude to win them all. But her biggest challenge will be finding a way to stay happy when the three bullies steal her prizes.

As with the first book, author Tammi Sauer and illustrator Lynn Munsinger weave a fun story about anti-bullying. With an all-animal cast of characters, the visuals are very appealing and kids will love pointing out what type of animal each character is. There’s a great message about winning over strangers with a positive attitude that every child should know.

The thing I like best about Ginny Louise and the School Field Day is that while its core is about how to deal with bullies in a positive way, it doesn’t beat you over the head with it. It has a subtlety that allows parents and teachers to use it to start a conversation about things you can do when other kids are being mean. And at the end of the day when kids tried to take something that belonged to Ginny, she turned it around as a sharing experience at school. All great lessons and I hope to see more Ginny Louise in the future.

Alex Reif
Alex joined the Laughing Place team in 2014 and has been a lifelong Disney fan. His main beats for LP are Disney-branded movies, TV shows, books, music and toys. He recently became a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA).