Judy Moody Around the World in 8 1/2 days

Judy Moody Around the World in 8 1/2 days by Megan McDonald is a school story for 7 year olds about meeting somebody exactly like you and not enjoying it one bit.

A new girl sits down at Judy's lunch table. She has a clipboard, a pencil behind her ear, blue-green glasses and two watches.

Her name is Amy Namey and she is a Girl Reporter. She interviews Judy's two best friends with a ketchup bottle for a microphone.

Judy is not thrilled.

Then it gets worse. Amy dresses up as a famous woman from history. So does Judy. Amy collects chewed gum. So does Judy. Amy's name rhymes. So does Judy's.

Rocky and Frank think this is hilarious. They tell Judy she's met her clone.

And that's the whole problem, really. Judy has always been told she's one of a kind. Her mum says unique. Her dad says an individual. Her teacher says in a class by herself.

Now there's a second one, with better hair.

She goes round the family asking what you're supposed to do when somebody turns out to be just like you. Her little brother Stink says he'd bug her twice as much. Her dad says at least he'd have a new best friend.

Best friend or best enemy. Judy hasn't decided.

It's very funny on the inside of a seven year old's head. Judy narrates herself in the third person when she's feeling important, which is most of the time. She, Judy Moody, does not take this lying down.

The jealousy is the real thing though. Being told you're special and then meeting your double is a proper wobble, and the book is in no hurry to make Judy be nice about it.

Stink is a gift, too. Asked to name the four seasons, he offers salt, pepper, ketchup and mustard.

The trip around the world in the title is a class project and it comes after all this. What your reader gets first is a lunch table, a clipboard and a grudge.

A quick note on the language. Judy talks in her own slang, in capitals and made-up compounds, and she shouts ROAR when things go wrong. It's part of the fun rather than something to explain.

If they end up liking Judy's nerve, try Judy Moody Predicts the Future. A mood ring falls out of a cereal packet and convinces her she has see-the-future powers, which she then tests out on her family until somebody's finger is threatened.