Picture Book - If I Built a School by Chris VanDusen

Illustrated by the author

2019 Dial Book for Young Readers

HC $17.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.24 - 413 ratings 

My rating:  5
Endpapers:grenn with white outline drawing of OTHER crazy school ideas - lots of fun to look at!

1^st line/s:  "Jack, on the playground, said to Miss Jane,
This school is OK, but it's pitifully plain.
The builders who built this I think should be banned.
It's nothing at all like the school I have planned."

My comments: I love Chris VanDusen!  I love his illustrations, his ideas, and his very clever rhyming.

Goodreads: In this exuberant companion to If I Built a Car, a boy fantasizes about his dream school--from classroom to cafeteria to library to playground.
     My school will amaze you. My school will astound.
     By far the most fabulous school to be found!
     Perfectly planned and impeccably clean.
     On a scale, 1 to 10, it's more like 15!
     And learning is fun in a place that's fun, too.
                 If Jack built a school, there would be hover desks and pop-up textbooks, skydiving wind tunnels and a trampoline basketball court in the gym, a robo-chef to serve lunch in the cafeteria, field trips to Mars, and a whole lot more. The inventive boy who described his ideal car and house in previous books is dreaming even bigger this time.

PICTURE BOOK - We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins

Illustrated by the author

2018, Disney/Hyperion

HC $17.99

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.51 - 3829 ratings

My rating:  5
Endpapers:  drawings of dinosaurs drawn by Penelope's classmates

1^st line/s:  "Penelope Rex was nervous.  It's not every day a little T. rex Starts school."

My comments:  This has been my favorite book so far this year (it was written last year, 2018)  It's funny, creative, and has a fantastic theme:  treating each other fairly, lovingly, appropriately.  I can't wait to read this aloud to kids.  And I love the illustrations, the diversity in the classroom, and Penelope's innocent reactions to everything that happens to her.

Goodreads:  Penelope the dinosaur starts school, but it’s hard to make friends when her classmates are so delicious!
          It’s the first day of school for Penelope Rex, and she can’t wait to meet her classmates. But it’s hard to make human friends when they’re so darn delicious! That is, until Penelope gets a taste of her own medicine and finds she may not be at the top of the food chain after all. . . . Readers will gobble up this hilarious new story from award-winning author-illustrator Ryan T. Higgins.

37. The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan

Library book
2016, Wendy Lamb Books/Random House
256 pgs.
CRF in verse for Middle Grades
Finished June 24, 2016
Goodreads rating:  4.14 - 509 ratings
My rating:   4

My comments:  Stupidly, this is one of the reviews that I didn't write during the summer when I read the book (I HATE when I do that!)  It was written in verse from the point-of-view of different kids, and I wished that I'd taken quick, short notes about each of the kids from the start.  I think this would be an awesome book to use with middle grade book groups.

Goodreads synopsis:
Eighteen kids,
one year of poems,
one school set to close.
Two yellow bulldozers
crouched outside,
ready to eat the building
in one greedy gulp.

But look out, bulldozers.
Ms. Hill's fifth-grade class
has plans for you.
They're going to speak up
and work together
to save their school.

Laura Shovan's engaging novel is a time capsule of one class's poems during a transformative school year. The students grow up and move on in this big-hearted debut about finding your voice and making sure others hear it. 

The Twelve Days of Springtime - Deborah Lee Rose

A School Counting Book
illustrated by Carey Armstrong-Ellis
2009, Abrams Books for Young Readers
32 pages
$15.95
Endpapers:  Lime/springtime green
Title Page:  Colorful, four of the students outside playing just after a rain shower

"On the first day of springtime, my teacher gave to me . .
. . . a garden to water carefully."

There are eight kids in the class, each with their own separate personalities.  Their outfits and activities change as each day passes.  The teacher's facial expressions are great - they always react to what the kids are doing.  We watch a couple of aquariums in the classroom change as the days pass, one with caterpillars, the others with tadpoles.  There's so much to see in each illustrations, Ella and I poured over each one.

At the back, the artist described how she created the illustrations, first sketching, then outlining in pen and ink, then painting with gouache and detailing with colored pencils.  Very cool book.

Substitute Creature - Chris Gall

illustrated by the author
Little Brown & Co., 2011
HC $16.99
32 pages
Endpapers:  Full double page illustrations of a street on Halloween - before and after the story. (Look for the changes!)
Title Page:  The doors of the school with monster shadow - full page illustration
Illustrations:  all encased with a border
1st sentence/s:

"On a windswept day in late October, the students of Ms. Jenkin's class arrived to a surprise at school.

"Substitute teacher today! announced Peyton.

Amanda giggled and scribbled on the chalkboard.  Luke performed a circus act.  Gavin laughed like a mad scientist.

Then, at precisely eight o'clock, the door to the classroom creaked open.  The substitute teacher entered the room."

Mr. Creacher (a 5-eyed green monster with tentacles) tells his unruly class the tales of six different students who got into trouble in school and the unhappy results - with a twist at the end!

This has a Halloween aspect, but I wouldn't consider it a Halloween book at all.

73. Big Whopper - Patricia Reilly Giff

Zigzag Kids #2
Illustrateda by Alasdair Bright
Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, 2010
Simultaneously in paper?
68 pages
Rating: 3

Patricia Reilly Giff, award-winning author, has begun another series of early chapter books for young kids. Set in the after-school program at the Afternoon Center at the Zelda A. Zigzag School, readers meet the same group of children in each installment. However, each one features a different child as the protagonist. Alasdair Bright’s line drawings accentuate a small part of almost every two-page spread.

I read this one before the first, but there was no problem understanding what was going on. I'm guessing you can jump in anywhere. This one's about a frizzy blonde-haired girl named Destiny who loves the afterschool program. She runs into trouble, however, when she tells a lie because she's feeling a little like a loser. It's a simple lie, but it troubles her greatly. Then she tells her friend, Mitchell, and he tries to help her fix things. Meanwhile, it's DISCOVER week at the center, and Destiny feels she's never going to DISCOVER anything - and be able to write it on the huge drawing-paper wall. It's another student, one named Gina, that precipitates much of the frustrations that Destiny is feeling this week. We all have a Gina in our lives! Of course everything turns out well. Too well??

It's a very cute story. Teachers and adults are helpers and friends, not the enemy. When I look online for reading level guidelines, I see ages 9 - 12 everywhere. This seems much too high to me. My nine and ten year olds could read this just fine, but it would seem very young for them, I think. But would a first or early-second grader, which I would think would be the target group, be able to read it? Yes, it's written in short sentences and paragraphs. Is the font the right size? I'm really not sure!

Yasmin's Hammer - Ann Malaspina

Illustrated by Doug Ghayka
Lee Lows Books, 2010
$18.95
Endpapers: Royal Blue

Found this at the Chicago Library when I spent some meandering hours there.
Setting: Dhaka, Bangladesh

Two sisters go every day to work in the brickyard in the city of Dhaka. Abba (their father) pedals a rickshaw all day and Amma (their mother) works a a maid. To survive in the city, money must be earned by every family member. That is, until the oldest girl, because she wants to read, go to school, and make something of her life, works extra hard to earn enough to purchase a book. This makes Abba and Amma realize they must do anything they can to get their daughters an education.

Illustrations cover the entire page with the text in the street or walls. This is a heartwarming, eye-opening story that shuld be read to all the kids in the U.S. who take school for granted.

Carmen Learns English - Judy Cox

Illustrated by Angela Dominguez
Holiday House, 2010
32 pages
Rating: 3.5
Endpapers: Bright dark pink

When Carmen begins kindergarten, she's the only one who speaks Spanish - with no English at all. And she worries about her little sister, Lupita, who will start school next year and knows no English. But Carmen is blessed with a caring teacher. Mrs. Coski doesn't laugh at Carmen, and has her teach her classmates Spanish. When she goes home each day she teaches Lupita the English that she is learning.

Carmen admires her teacher and enjoys teaching her sister and her classmates. A future teacher, for sure!

Put yourself in another's shoes. How difficult it must be fore kids when they can't understand a word. A new kindergarten student at our school knows not a work of English, only Hebrew. She cries and cries and cries. At first I felt badly for her, but then I got irritated to see (and hear) her crying all the time. Her shyness was also hindering her. Shame on me! And now, three months into school, although I still see her crying, it is very much less frequent. To be so young, alone, and not able to understand what's going on around you or be able to communicate even simple needs....well.....

I picked up this book at the library and put it back down. But as I did I flipped through the pages. Its' written in a cool font, "Providence Sans." I changed my mind - because of the font - and checked it out.

Never Say Boo - Robin Pulver

Illustrated by Deb Lucke
Holiday House, 2009
$16.95
32 pages
Rating: 2.5
Endpapers: black with dancing skeletons (there are no skeletons in the story, only human kids and one ghost....)

This book has a silly premise - that ghosts walk around like humans, living in haunted houses and going to school. In this story, Gordon, a ghost, has moved with his parents across town and must now go to a closer school. He is certain that kids will be scared of him because he will be the only ghost at this new school. At his old school, all the kids had been ghosts. And he knew how hard it was to make friends.

The first thing that happens is that his teacher, although she is expecting him, is still so frightened that she passes out. When she comes to she tries to assure all the kids that everything is all right - but the day continues badly for Gordon. All the questions the teacher asks have BOO somewhere in the answer, and he knows that his BOO is really scary, so even though he knows the answers, he doesn't dare contribute. Then at lunch his mom has packed scary surprises in his lunchbox, so the kids are all weirded out. But then something happens that makes him a hero and he instantly becomes everyone's best friend.

Okay. I don't know. Just didn't do it for me, although there are some great words used in the book. And some fun word play.

I also like the illustrations and the endpapers. Lots of black - where white would normally be. Although the story has nothing to do with Halloween (nothing to do with trick-or-treating, witches, pumpkins, etc) this would be the time to share it. So it has it's place as a not-so-scary story about not-scary-at-all ghosts. I guess.

Robin Pulver's website.
It doesn't look like Deb Lucke has her own website, but see some of her artwork here.

Late for School - Steve Martin

Illustrated by C. F. Payne
Grand Central Publications, 2010
Comes with a cd: $17.99
32 pages
Rating: 2/4(illust.)
endpapers: pale pink spongy look

This rhyming story doesn't rhyme well or have a great rhythm that I could get into. Some of the plot seems forced to make the rhyme. The plot is also a bit old -- hurrying to school only to find it's Saturday (I guess I've read Shel Silverstein too many times). I LOVE Steve Martin as an actor, but I didn't enjoy his short novel Shopgirl and I didn't enjoy this. I didn't get to hear the cd, since I read this at the bookstore, so that may be the redeeming factor. The written word just doesn't do it for me.

However, the illustruations are fun and funny - C.F. Payne captures great facial expressions on our exceptionally large-eared protagonist.

66. No Talking - Andrew Clements

Audio read by Keith Nobbs
Recorded Books, 2007
3 unabridged cds
3 hrs.
160 pages
Rating: 4

This ended up being a delightful story. As I first listened, I didn’t think I’d proceed, but it kept getting more and more interesting. Great premise – that an extremely talkative group of fifth graders would challenge each other (boys vs. girls) to not talk for 48 hours. They were smart enough to realize that it wouldn’t be able to work unless they could speak, in some way, to their parents and teachers, so they added a caveat – you could respond to someone as long as you used three words or less. Thank you Mahatma Ghandi (and thank you to the teacher who had these fifth graders present an oral report on India).

This experimental challenge changed the kids and even some of the teachers. Clements shows some of the kids’ thought processes, especially the two protagonists, both clever kids but real loudmouths, Dave Packer and Lynsey Burgess. Interesting concept. Cleverly put together. I’ve started reading it to my particularly talkative fourth grade. Yup, they’re extreme yackahoolas. Real loudmouths. They think out loud, they blurt out without raising their hands, they hoot, they holler, they sing, thye dance! ! ! Well, at least they’re happy…….

First Food Fight This Fall (and Other School Poems) - Marilyn Singer

Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa
Sterling, 2008
$14.95
40 pages
My rating: 4
Endpapers: "Snapshots" of each of the 12 kids who "write" these poems about their school life in Ms. Mundy's class

Subjects and people and the playground, the classroom and celebrations and poetry -- all are creatively presented. This is a perfect fun 3rd/4th grade collection of poems that tell a story.

The illustrations are bright, the text is on top of and part of the illustration. Picture and poems work together so well.

Field Trip

Look at this painting, that color, this line.
Look at that tiger, so different from ine.
Look at the walls, at the ceiling, the floor.
Art everywhere! In the next room there's more!
Boats in the harbor, a girls with a cup...
Will I be an artist when I grow up?
Will they hang my pictures where people can see 'em
When they take a trip to this super museum?

Spring Me!

Silly
bee bumping
the window, let's
trade places. You want to come
in and work. I want to go out
and play.

What woke me? It might
have been a robin. It might
have been a poem.

69. Judy Moody - Megan McDonald

Book #1 in the Judy Moody Series
(Judy Moody was in a mood. Not a good mood. A bad mood.)
Illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds
Candlewick, 2000
168 pgs.
$5.99
Rating: 5

Check out the Judy Moody website!!

Judy Moody was not very happy to begin 3rd grade. She was in a bad mood. But things started looking up when she walked into the room, met her third grade teacher, and saw that everything they were going to do that day revolved around pizza. Of course, she couldn't show her enjoyment, she WAS in a bad mood......

This if a funny, clever story. The book revolves around an assignment that the class has to do in the first month of school, creating a "me" poster. (I'm really glad these kids take their assignments so seriously!) The T.P. Club is created, a highly secret club. And no, it doesn't mean toilet paper. She discovers that the classmate that eats paste is actually not someone to be kept at an arm's distance, but a collector-like-her that was brave enough to eat paste as a dare. She constantly thinks outside-the-box, enjoying a Venus flytrap as a new pet. She aspires to be a doctor like Elizabeth Blackwell and has a huge bandaid collection. She loves to tease her brother, but is always there to make things all right for him, too. She's a really great kid. I love her!

Highly recommended. Would make a great read aloud for third graders, too.

First Year Letters - Julie Danneberg

Illustrated by Judy Love
Charlesbridge, 2003
32 pgs.
For Gr. 2-4 & teachers!

Now here's a great book to give a teacher! It's about a year of teaching, the second book about Sarah Jane Hartwell. (The first was First Day Teacher).

Full of humor and love, written entirely in letters, the story tells of a great school year and a great teacher. It includes science lessons, corresponding disasters, principal oabservations, escaped snakes, museum visits, and student inquisitiveness (hopefully that's a word.....).

This is a great fun read with pictures that beautifully compliment the letters.

63. Miss Daisy is Crazy! Dan Gutman

My Weird School SERIES #1
Illustrated by Jim Paillot
Harper Trophy, 2004
Funny - 2nd grade protagonist
ages 7-10, 700 Lexile, L

Miss Daisy, the second grade teacher, says she can't read, do math, or even know the presidents. (NOTE: She's a very wise teacher!!) She gets the school reading a million pages so they can "rent" the school for a night to play video games. She gets a famous football player to come to visit to prove that football players aren't "dumb." Funny and clever - loved it. (Bought it for Ashley, who's just started 2nd grade.)

12-29-2012 Ella and I just read this book together.  She read some, I read some.  She's in first grade.  She had to be told a little about some of the humor, but totally enjoyed it.  So did I!)

For a list of the books in the series, look here.