Diary of a Real Payne: True Story Review

Geek Girl, Princess and I got the opportunity to read Barbour Publishing’s book Diary of a Real Payne by Annie Tipton for review. It’s on sale for $4.49 through Barbour Publishing. It’s 192 pages softcover and geared for ages 8 and up. Diary of a Real Payne follows the diary entry’s (which share her thoughts and feelings about her life) of EJ (aka Emma Jean) Payne who lives in the small town of Spooner, Wisconsin where her dad is a pastor and her mom is a teacher at the local elementary school. It follows EJ’s many adventures in everyday life as well as her imagination, that may or may not, get her into quite a bit of mischief. EJ learns many life lessons through her adventures especially that her life in Spooner may not be as bad as she thought… and this is only the first book in the series.

Geek Girl, Princess and I have been reading it as a read aloud book. We have found it to be quite humorous and are curious as to what EJ is going to get her self into in the next book. We’ve found it fun to read and have been amazed and laughing out loud at EJ’s antics throughout the story. It’s amazing to me the imagination on this child and reminds me very much of my girls and how their imaginations run away with them.

This book is a good addition to our library. I believe the author has written it very well and has really engaged the elementary/middle school aged kids in the story. Whether you are a kid or kid at heart it was a lot of fun. And to think this is just the beginning for EJ Payne. We wonder how much more trouble she can get in as the series progresses. It’s a nice change to some of the other books for kids that are out there right now. And it addresses a genre that no other Christian children’s author has yet tried to go after “the diary” type of books.  As a mother its always good to find a good variety of kids books to give each of my kids a chance to find something they love to read.

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