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 - A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris VanDusen

Illustrated by the author

2003, Chronicle Books, San Francisco

28 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.36 - 1055 ratings

My rating:  5!!!!

1^st line/s:  “Early one morning at 7:03,

     Mr. Magee and his little dog, Dee,

Packed up the camper and hitched up the load.

     Hopped in the Rambler and then hit the road.

They drove to the mountains, far from the sea,

      For two nights of camping (or possibly three).”

My comments: Perhaps I love this VanDusen as much as Circus Ship (which has been my all-time favorite for the past couple of years).  Great, funny story, rhyming BRILLIANTLY, with just the coolest illustrations ever.  SO Maine!  I couldn’t love a picture book more!  Full of adventure and humor, a bear, trying to get at the yummy marshmallows, disconnects the camping trailer from the car and down the  hill the camper plunders…into the river and towards a waterfall!

Goodreads:  Mr. Magee and his trusty dog, Dee, are enjoying a peaceful camping trip when all of a sudden they find themselves plunging down a mountain and teetering on the edge of a huge waterfall! How will they find their way out of this slippery situation? Chris Van Dusen, the creator of Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee, has filled this new adventure with charming illustrations and a playful, rhyming text. A fun read-aloud for children (and adults!) on campouts or snuggling at home!

King Hugo's Huge Ego - Chris VanDusen

Illustrated by the author
Candlewick Press, 2011
HC, $16.99
40 pgs.
Rating:  4.5
Endpapers:  Yellow with darker yellow crest/shield with a slightly darker "H"
Title Pages: Full page illustration (a castle atop rolling green hills)

"Long ago, when people spoke
with words like "thou" and "thee,"
there lived a king named Hugo
who was only three foot three.

And though this mini monarch
stood no higher than an elf,
his ego was enormous --
he thought highly of himself."

Rhyming a b c b
Alliteration
Rhythm
Great vocabulary

Favorite illustration:  Tessa (a sorceress), after being bumped into the river, is grubby, shoeless (a dog is sticking out from under her haystack), she has a bedraggled frog on her head and a turtle on her rear....

Incredibly haughty King Hugo is poxed by a farm girl and his head grows and grows...and grows each time he brags.

Mercy Watson Fights Crime - Kate DiCamillo

Illustrated by Chris Van Dusen
#3 Mercy Watson series
Candlewick, 2006
74 pgs.
For: ages 6-8
Rating: 5

Now here's a series where a clever, funny story and very clever, comical illustrations work together perfectly. Just perfectly. Such characters! Such humor. Great fun.

Mercy Watson, a pig, a plain old non-talking, food-loving pig, lives with Mr. and Mrs. Watson in her own room with her own bed. She loves to eat and sleep and ... well, that's about it, I guess. But what an adventure she unwittingly gets herself into.

Tiny Leroy Ninker, who wants to be a cowboy but is a robber, breaks into the Watson kitchen. He steals the toaster, the clock, and various other kitcheny items until Mercy hears the toaster sliding across the counter and thinks someone is preparing toast with butter. She discovers that no one is, so she falls asleep in front of the getaway door. When Leroy begins to step over her, she awakens and takes him for a Yippee-I-Oh ride across the lawn, waking up two old-lady sisters next door.

Hilarious and fun. Last week when I was in Maine, my granddaughter, Ashley, and I went into the Briar Patch children's bookstore in Bangor. (Wow, more on that later...) Her immediate choice of a new book was the newest Mercy Watson, #6, that has just been published. She said that Chris Van Dusen (the illustrator) had come to visit her school and she'd read other books in the series. Ashley's somewhat of a reluctant reader, so this was a very happy discovery for me. A very worthwhile, happy discovery. I want to get to know more of these characters - especially Baby and Eugenia Lincoln, the two elderly sisters who live next door.