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    Bob
    Bob
    Bob
    Ebook137 pages2 hours

    Bob

    By Wendy Mass, Rebecca Stead and Nicholas Gannon

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    It’s been five years since Livy and her family have visited Livy’s grandmother in Australia. Now that she’s back, Livy has the feeling she’s forgotten something really, really important about Gran’s house.

    It turns out she’s right.

    Bob, a short, greenish creature dressed in a chicken suit, didn’t forget Livy, or her promise. He’s been waiting five years for her to come back, hiding in a closet like she told him to. He can’t remember who—or what—he is, where he came from, or if he even has a family. But five years ago Livy promised she would help him find his way back home. Now it’s time to keep that promise.

    Clue by clue, Livy and Bob will unravel the mystery of where Bob comes from, and discover the kind of magic that lasts forever.

    Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead, two masterminds of classic, middle-grade fiction come together to craft this magical story about the enduring power of friendship.

    This title has Common Core connections.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMay 1, 2018
    ISBN9781250166630
    Bob
    Author

    Wendy Mass

    Wendy Mass is the New York Times bestselling author of The Candymakers series, Bob, and many other novels for young readers, including the Schneider Family Book Award-winner A Mango-Shaped Space, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life (which was made into a feature film), Every Soul a Star, Pi in the Sky, the Twice Upon a Time series, and the Willow Falls series that began with 11 Birthdays. She and her family live in New Jersey.

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    Reviews for Bob

    4/5

    141 ratings17 reviews

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    • 5/5
      When Livy goes back to Australia to visit her Gran, something feels strange. She remembers a strange chicken, but doesn't remember anything else. It isn't until she goes up to her old room and discovers the mysterious green Bob dressed as a chicken that she remembers anything about the last time she visited. Together, she and Bob work together to figure out how to get him home...and just where his home might be. This book is just the right amount of fantasy and mystery. Bob is so likeable, and Livy so real that you want them to figure everything out. The ending is satisfying but not too hokey.
    • 5/5
      This book may be written for the middle grade level readers but I too enjoyed this book. In fact, you could say that I was absolutely over the moon in love with this book. Bob is great. Everyone needs a Bob in their lives. I loved that while Livy was more grown than when she left Bob five years ago; she was not above playing with childish items including Bob. Although, Bob is not like a stuffed animal that a child plays with and forgets. While there was no interaction between Livy's grandma and Bob; I kind of have a feeling that she was aware of him. The authors do a great job of telling this story. There are not a lot of huge words used; therefore, it makes it easy for the younger readers to read this book on their own with little intervention from adults. Bob will always hold a special place in my heart. This book is an absolute pure delightful read!
    • 5/5
      Livy doesn’t remember anything from the last time she visited her grandmother in Australia — especially the weird green creature (chicken? zombie?) waiting for her in the bedroom closet. His name is Bob, and they were best friends when she was five. But what kind of creature is Bob, and where does he belong?Ahh, this was so sweet! I loved the characters, especially Bob. Readers of middle-grade fantasy will enjoy this book.
    • 5/5
      A truly delightful story!
    • 4/5
      A gentle and magical story told in the alternating voices of Livy and Bob, her mysterious friend. Just who, or what, Bob is and why Livy keeps forgetting him will keep readers intrigued and charmed. A tale of friendship and mystery, where the only thing lurking in the closet is a loyal friend.
    • 5/5
      This book is amazing espescaly every part of it I love the part where they find out the well is tunnel that was scary to me for some reason tho
    • 4/5
      Bob was a really sweet story that was really hard to get into. The book is only 200 pages, but the first 100 were almost never ending. It’s the set up to the story. Bob has been hiding in the closet of a house in Australia for 5 years. Livy is a US girl who is visiting her grandmother in Australia. The last time she was there was five years ago. Livy was just a little kid, she remembers very little of her first visit, and is quite surprised by the little green guy who keeps saying they used to be friends. Their friendship redevelops as Livy tries to discover just exactly what Bob is and where he comes from, since he can't live the rest of his life dressed in a chicken costume at the bottom of her grandmother’s closet. The ending is what makes this book so sweet. It about finding where you belong, and holding on to those you deem important. Others may find it just as hard to get into, but I promise, it is worth it in the end.#MountTBR#NancyDrewChallenge #TreeonCover#KillYourTBR #Under 220 pages
    • 4/5
      Weird and sweet and mysterious. About forgetting and remembering and strange not-zombie friends.
    • 5/5
      This book helped my kids kearn how important friendship is.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      children's fiction (3rd-6th grade, magical creatures friendship story drought in Australia)
      a sweet story in which no one dies. hooray!
    • 5/5
      I was originally drawn to this book by the combination of the title and the cover art. And I am very glad to say I was not disappointed. Even though this is a book aimed at younger readers, the characters didn't feel flat, like can unfortunately happen with a bit more frequently in stories aimed at younger readers. I liked the reoccurring lists throughout the book. It's a beautiful story of friendship. It is a nice, light read. And, I like that the ending is not of the style I often associate with books for this age group.
    • 5/5
      When Livy revisits her grandma in Australia after 5 years, she finds a strange zombielike creature in the closet wearing a chicken suit who has been waiting for her since she left without saying good-bye. She has just the vaguest memories of her previous visit, and the strangest thing is how easy it is to forget Bob when she goes out. But she has promised to help him find out what he is and where he's from and get him back home again, so she's committed to figuring it all out. The theme that friends aren't always well-dressed perfect people, but what's on the inside is what friends are made of, not what they look like makes this fantasy touch the heart of the reader. This 200 page fast read is very appropriate for grades 3-5.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Bob" is "a small zombie wearing a chicken suit" who lives in a closet in Australia where human friend Livy left him when she returned five years ago to Massachusetts from visiting her Australian grandma. When Livy returns as a ten-year-old, she has surprising trouble remembering Bob, and has to relearn their relationship. This middle grade novel by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead is funny and fun and has a lot to say about friendship. Bob needs Livy's help to solve who and what he is, and where he comes from, as he has his own memory problems. Pursuing that mystery, and figuring out Livy's impediments, keep the pages flying.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Whimsically perfect, a 5 year old's imaginary friend isn't imaginary at all when she is 10 and returns to her grandmother's Australian farm. Finding out what Bob is is complicated that Bob can't remember anything before meeting Livy and Livy forgets Bob when she gets very far from it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Recommended by an amazing employee at Copperfield's Bookstore in Novato!"All I did for five years was remember, and all she did was forget." - Bob, speaking about LivyLivy is an eleven year old girl, and Bob? Well, Bob is a 'zombie' that is short, has green skin, and no hair. In a chicken suit. Believe it or not, this is a touching, sweet story of friendship. A genuinely enjoyable tale that I can't wait for my daughter to read! I don’t think I’ll look at a well without thinking about this book!Cool factor - Little Free Library mentioned on page 210! My family has one!“Bring licorice.”
    • 3/5
      Enjoyable, but too explainy at the end.
    • 3/5
      This is an enjoyable book that takes the reader to Australia where there hasn't been rain in a long, long time. Livy's grandmother lives in Australia; the last time she and her mother visited was five years ago. Now Livy has a baby sister that is with them. And, in the bedroom closet is her friend Bob. He was there the entire five years, waiting in the closet. He appears to be a dressed as a chicken in an orange suit with some feathers tacked on. Mad because cannot remember him as much as he remembered and missed Livy, together they try to fit pieces of five years ago into this current visit.Endearing, creative,

    Book preview

    Bob - Wendy Mass

    CHAPTER ONE

    LIVY

    I feel bad that I can’t remember anything about Gran Nicholas’s house. On the table in her kitchen Gran has lined up three things I do not remember:

    1. A green stuffed elephant in overalls.

    2. A net bag full of black chess pieces.

    3. A clunky old tape recorder.

    You loved these things when you were here before, Gran Nicholas tells me.

    But I don’t remember any of it.

    Not the horses? Gran Nicholas says, pointing out the window to a dusty yard. Maybe there were horses there once?

    Not the pigs? Gran Nicholas says, pointing out the back door. If I squint I can make out some pigs behind a fence. But I don’t remember them.

    "Not this? she says, holding up the green stuffed elephant. When you were here before, you wouldn’t let go of it. You carried it everywhere. You wouldn’t let anyone get near it!"

    But it’s like I’ve never laid eyes on that green stuffed elephant in my life. It could have been anyone’s green stuffed elephant, and I would not have minded.

    Mom looks nervous. She wants me to remember. But it’s her fault I don’t—she brought me here for a month when I was five and didn’t bring me back again until now, when I am practically eleven.

    Ten and a half.

    Almost.

    Of course, I do remember Gran herself, because we talk on the phone every week, and we write each other postcards. Gran tells me the news of Australia and I tell her the news of Massachusetts. She came to visit us once, for two weeks. But I don’t remember one thing about her house.

    Actually, maybe I do remember one thing.

    I think I remember a wrong chicken.

    I remember chickens, and one chicken that was different. One chicken was not like the other chickens, is what I remember. But standing here in the kitchen with everyone looking at me, I don’t know how to ask Gran about that.

    I pick up the elephant. It’s soft and floppy. I still don’t remember it.

    Gran Nicholas sighs. She doesn’t say what I know she wants to say, which is that we should have come back sooner.

    On the other hand, Australia is very far away from Massachusetts.

    If you want to get from our house to Gran Nicholas’s house, this is what you have to do:

    1. Drive from Massachusetts to New York City for four hours.

    2. Park the car and wait for a bus to the airport.

    3. Take a plane for seven hours to California.

    4. Get off that plane.

    5. Take another plane for nineteen hours to Melbourne, Australia.

    6. Get off that plane.

    7. Wait in three different lines while official people look at your bags and your papers.

    8. Wait in the rental car line.

    9. Drive the car for two hours in Australia.

    10. Get to Gran’s house.

    Now Mom’s going to leave me here again while she goes to visit all her friends from growing up. The baby is too young to stay with Gran Nicholas, so she’s going with Mom.

    I wonder what it’s like here at night.

    I look at the chess pieces. Does Gran have the white ones? I open my mouth to ask, but instead I hear myself say:

    Are there … chickens?

    Yes! She gets excited, and Mom looks happy. Gran grabs my hand and runs me out to the yard, where some chickens are pecking in the dirt. I look them over but they all look regular.

    Are these the same chickens? I ask Gran Nicholas.

    She says they are different chickens. But the idea of chickens is right.

    I don’t exactly know how to ask the next question. Did you used to have one that was … weird?

    Weird? she asks.

    Maybe there wasn’t a weird one. Or maybe they don’t say weird in Australia.

    Never mind, I say. I realize I’m squeezing something in the hand that Gran is not holding. I open it and see one of the black chess pieces. A pawn.

    Then, coming back into the house with Gran, I see Gran’s back stairs. They have carpet on them, and I suddenly know that I have bumped down those stairs.

    Did I ever bump down those stairs? I ask Gran, pointing.

    Yes! she says. You loved bumping down those stairs. You had a name for it.

    A name for the stairs?

    No, for bumping down them. You called it something.…

    I think she is right. I think I did call it something. But neither of us can remember what it was.

    Now that I’ve remembered the chickens and the stairs, Mom looks happier, like maybe Gran won’t think we stayed away too long after all. The baby starts doing some pre-crying in her baby seat. Dad and I invented the word pre-crying, which means the crying that comes right before the really loud crying. Mom isn’t fussing with her because she wants me to know that this trip is about me having special time with Gran Nicholas, and not just for Gran to finally see the baby in real life. I heard Mom talking to Dad about it the day we left home. Mom said, I want Olivia to know that this trip is about her having special time with Gran. Not just about the baby.

    And Dad said, I know, hon. You told me yesterday. And this morning.

    Dad didn’t come to Australia with us. He’s at home, building a new room for the baby. He says it’ll be ready when we get back.

    Then I sort of remember another thing. It’s something about the second floor, but I’m not sure exactly what about the second floor it is. I’m still squeezing that black pawn. It feels good in my hand.

    Is there something about the second floor? I ask.

    Yes! Gran says. The second floor is where your room is. And your four-poster bed!

    But what I remember about the second floor is not a big bed with a canopy. I still don’t know what it is, but it is not that.

    It’s …

    It’s …

    May I be excused? I ask, already turning toward the stairs.

    I’ll come up with you, Mom says. Your room used to be my room when I was a little girl, remember?

    I stop, one hand on the railing of the carpeted stairs that I used to bump down. For some reason, I think I’m supposed to go up alone. I glance at Beth Ann, who is still wiggling in her seat. Our eyes meet. As if she knows what I’m thinking, she quits her pre-crying and makes her someone feed me whimper. Mom turns toward her, torn between the two of us. I zoom up the stairs.

    The doors along the upstairs hallway are open. I peek into what must be Gran’s room, where a patchwork quilt is pulled over the bed. I pass the bathroom, where soaps in the shapes of ducks and chicks pretend to march along the counter toward the sink. By the time I reach the last room—my room—I’m almost running. I’m not sure why.

    Then I see the closet. I still don’t remember the bed, or the bright pink curtains. But I remember this closet. It’s small—the door seems like only half a door, and there can’t be much room on the other side.

    I think I left something inside. Something really, really important.

    My hand reaches for the doorknob. I know exactly where the light cord is, and I watch my hand reach out and pull it. The light flickers on.

    Here is what I see:

    1. A high shelf, jammed with shoeboxes and falling-down stacks of old comic books.

    2. Below that, clothes on hangers dangle from a bar. There’s a tutu with sequins and a few summer dresses for someone a lot smaller than me. Maybe Gran is keeping them for Beth Ann in a long, long time. Right now, Beth Ann is so small she can barely keep a shirt on. One shoulder is always falling out of the neck hole. If I try to fix it, she

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