Fourth Grade Rats Books in Order

The Fourth Grade Rats series follows George "Suds" Morton through two very different school years, wrapped around a single playground rhyme about first grade babies, third grade angels, and fourth grade rats. In Third Grade Angels he is still chasing perfection. By Fourth Grade Rats he is trying hard to look tough, even when it goes against every instinct he has. (slj.com)

In Third Grade Angels, Suds arrives in Mrs. Simms's third grade class determined to be the first kid to earn her cardboard halo for good behavior. A monthly competition turns kindness into a game. Suds picks up trash, opens doors, and worries obsessively about whether his good deeds count if no one sees them. The book plays his efforts for laughs, but it also asks what it means to be good when you are mostly thinking about a prize. (publishersweekly.com)

Fourth Grade Rats flips the script. Now the older kids chant that fourth graders are rats, not angels, and Suds's best friend Joey is thrilled. Being a rat, Joey explains, means eating meat instead of peanut butter, giving up lunchboxes and teddy bears, and never crying. Suds, who still loves his old comforts, feels pulled between his gentle nature and Joey's idea of toughness. (kirkusreviews.com)

As Suds tries on the rat persona, he pushes little kids off swings, talks back to his mother, and even throws his stuffed bear out the window. The more he shocks people, the more attention he gets from classmates and from Judy, the girl he likes. Underneath the slapstick scenes, the story keeps circling the cost of that attention and the uneasy feeling that comes from acting like someone you are not. (supersummary.com)

Both books are short, funny chapter books pitched to younger elementary readers, but they take their feelings seriously. Suds's worry about growing up, Joey's hunger for status, and the way parents quietly set limits will feel familiar in many households. Together, the two stories sketch out a path from wanting to be the teacher's angel to wondering whether toughness is the only way to be treated as grown up.

You can read either volume on its own, but starting with Third Grade Angels lets you see how the halo chaser of third grade becomes the conflicted "rat" of fourth grade, and why he eventually decides that real maturity has less to do with slogans than with owning his choices.