''Busybody Nora'' is a children's book written by Johanna Hurwitz and illustrated by Susan Jeschke. It was first published in 1976. It was Hurwitz's first book and was an early chapter book. Her daughter Naomi was the inspiration for Nora, and her son Ben was the inspiration for Teddy. On

Accelerated Reader Accelerated Reader (AR) is an educational program created by Renaissance Learning. It is designed to monitor and manage students' independent reading practice and comprehension in both English and Spanish. The program assesses students' perfor ...

, the level of the story is 4.1 (blue color), has a

lexile The Lexile Framework for Reading is an educational tool in the United States that uses a measure called a Lexile to match readers with reading resources such as books and articles. Readers and texts are assigned a Lexile score, where lower scor ...

measure of 630L and is recommended for seven- to ten-year-olds. It has since become a popular children's library book and is also used for school lessons. The book is made up of six stories about a six-year-old girl called Nora, her young brother Teddy, and her parents who live in a

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

apartment block.

Plot

The protagonist, Nora, is a girl who lives in an apartment building of about 200 people in New York with her little brother Teddy and her parents. Although she has lived there all her life, she doesn't know all the residents' names so she asks everyone she meets what their name is and receives the

moniker A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

of 'Busybody'. One time, Nora accidentally becomes a babysitter for a day and later she and Teddy prepare for their dad's birthday. Another day, her grandparents visit and her grandfather talks about how he knew Jack from the beanstalk tale. Finally, Nora arranges for a building party as a way to persuade one of the resident's daughters, who lives in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, that New York is a safe and friendly place for her mother to live.

Reception

Publishers Weekly states that ''Busybody Nora'' is 'Six joyous stories ... will make six-year-old Nora and her little brother the favorite fiction friends of all readers, any age.'

References

{{Portal , Children's literature 1976 children's books 1976 short story collections American children's books Children's short story collections