As Brian Higman, alias the Big Hig, tells it, he’s due a detention, because he can’t turn in his English homework to “The General,” his fourth-grade teacher Miss Fromme. He tries to outmaneuver her using all legitimate ploys to sidetrack her, but in the effort of explaining why his homework isn’t done, he discovers his stories have riveted friends, school staff and the principal; even Miss Fromme is begging to hear more. Full of nuclear family hijinks, this first-person narrative multitasks as a great slice of life from a funny nine-year-old boy, encouragement for reluctant writers and instruction on how to write an interesting and satisfying story. Supporting an atmosphere for creative writing, DiSalvo developed fun-loving characters and a well-paced plot with her usual aplomb. (Fiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-8234-1947-9
Page Count: 103
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2006
Andreasen (Tattered Sails, 2001, etc.) has chosen to frame this tale about a pre-Depression Kentucky family getting a new mail-order house as a scrapbook, with 11-year-old Emily’s narrative running alongside arrays of drawings, advertisements, diagrams, antique-looking photos, small keepsakes, and other memorabilia, all rendered with photorealistic precision. Having spent most of her life sharing the attic with little brother Homer, Emily is understandably thrilled to sit down at the table with her parents and pick out a house from a catalogue—a house with not only a room just for her, but such modern conveniences as indoor plumbing, an electric refrigerator, and a gas range. Half the town turns out when the house arrives in prefabricated parts, and, for Emily at least, the excitement never flags through the months of hard work it takes to put it all together. Her account is more a broad outline than a tally of nitty-gritty details, but like Jane Yolen’s Raising Yoder’s Barn (1998), it will leave young readers seeing the walls and buildings around them with new eyes. For a sense of period, you could hardly do better than these evocative illustrations. (Picture book. 7-9)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-670-03545-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Most main characters speak but in this delightfully charming story about J.D.’s summer on his Grandmother’s farm, the title player moos—Georgie Lee is a cow, and a right smart one at that. The opening chapter establishes the ambience when J.D. and Grandmother can’t understand why, on such a hot day, Georgie Lee is standing absolutely still in the cool creek. As they watch, little fish school under the cow’s spotted belly and, one by one, jump up and catch the flies crawling on her. When all the flies are gone, the full fish swim back to their hiding place, Georgie Lee has a long, cool drink and smiles as she heads back to her grass hill. The cleverly subtle writing meshes details and dialogue with homespun flair as in the incident when Grandmother climbs a tree to join J.D. and can’t get down. J.D. asks, “Did you ever see a cow up a tree?” Grandmother answers, “Not yet.” And sure enough, at the end of the story, there’s Georgie Lee, amidst tree branches. The delicate black-and-white drawings softly accentuate the episodes of symbiotic relationships between animals and people. “Why do tumblebugs make balls out of cow manure?” J.D. asked. In her unflappable wisdom, Grandmother answers, “Ever try rolling something that’s not round?” Country and city kids alike will grin over the trio’s encounters with a haunted house, a neighborhood goat, a giant catfish, and a huge storm in this deceptively simple first chapter book. (Fiction. 7-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-688-17940-1
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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