Samantha Hansen Has Rocks in Her Head

“Move over Ramona Quimby… Samantha Hansen is ready to ROCK!”


Written by Nancy Viau

Releases to the public:
August 20th, 2008

Pages: 192

My rating 1-5 stars:
4 stars

Samantha Hansen is just a 10 year old and is still in elementary school, but don’t let that fool you she probably knows more about science and rocks than you do. Which is probably why most of all the kids in her class make fun of her whenever she goes ranting on about rocks. Samantha gets very excited when her mom tells Samantha and Jennifer (Samantha’s older sister) that they are going to go to the Grand Canyon for a whole weekend. But Samantha might run in to some trouble because of her lacking of the ability to control her anger. She has to try really hard not to loose her temper and yell at her sister when she messes with her rock collection or when a fellow student picks on her because of her love for rocks. Getting to go to the Grand Canyon isn’t the only reason she is trying so hard to be calm. She also wants to try and get her mom to tell her why her dad died and why her mom doesn’t mention him that much to her.

I ab-so-lutely enjoyed this book. It was well written and the plot was great. It had me thinking what Samantha was thinking and wondering what she was wondering. And I even got a little bit mad when she was. Which brings me to say that Samantha was an astonishing character. Nancy Viau made her so realistic that at the end of the book I felt I was with Samantha the whole time and had known her for a long time. Samantha’s older sister, Jennifer was very realistic too. In fact, she even reminded me of my younger sister because even though she does something it is usually Samantha who gets in trouble. But Samantha and Jen do have times where they get along, even if it is for a few seconds. Which is the same with my sister and I. I picked up a moral in this story and that is even if someone did something that may bug you, be the better person and ignore it. Don’t get upset about it, just count to ten in your head. Samantha’s story deals with friendship, family, sibling love, and relationships, which is all packed in with a lot of humor. I would recommend this book to 3rd graders and up. It is definitely going to be on the top with Junie B. Jones and Ramona Quimby.

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