Would you rather be a lion or a flea? One aspect of life in many societies is that those who are stronger physically or personality wise tend to dominate social circles. This is true in Frederick Frederickson's school where cool kid Devin sits atop the social circle and Frederick, an unathletic, a cruise-loving fifth grader sits at the very bottom. In their school there are lions, gazelles, meerkats and on the bottom of the totem pole, fleas. Frederick is a flea.
As you can imagine, Frederick sometimes wishes he wasn't a flea, but he secretly hopes that some day he will get his moment. Maybe some day he will be top dog in dodgeball AND get more wings on his plate at lunch.
When by a weird series of events, Frederick finds himself on a camp for boys who need behavior adjustment, he suddenly gets a chance to vault right to the head of the pecking order. Of course this brings a set of consequences that he didn't anticipate. For one, at this camp, the kids seem to revere Frederick. Then as if that wasn't enough, mother nature throws a huge spanner into the works.
This is a good read about friendship and about doing the right thing under pressure. Kids at this age are beginning to make decisions for themselves and the influence of the peer group is becoming so very important. Some similar books are Louis Sachar's classic Holes, Lisa Graff's Absolutely Almost and Erin Entrada Kelly's excellent Hello Universe.
