This field trip to remember will appeal to eager chapter-book readers, fans of talking-animal stories, and teachers looking...
Schoolyard squirrel Twitch has scientific questions but no answers, so he joins a class trip to the Galileo Museum and Science Center.
Stowing away on the school bus is just the first of Twitch’s adventures on this field trip, all breathlessly recounted in a first-person, present-tense narration that exposes his squirrel-centered understanding of the world. Chapter-book readers will both recognize his quirks, including his preoccupation with food, and enjoy a sense of superiority in their wider understanding. For this third title in a series that began with 8 Class Pets + 1 Squirrel ÷1 Dog = Chaos (2011), the author-illustrator pair have perfected their formula for entertainment—a limited perspective, slapstick humor, and nonstop action. Twitch is protected inside the museum by a white boy who uses a wheelchair, often shown among his racially diverse classmates in Björkman’s amusing sketches. Other images show Twitch atop an astonished girl’s head, scaring her more than the animatronic T. Rex behind her; Twitch wreaking havoc in the museum’s gift shop; driving a model Mars rover; and flying over a Bernoulli air pressure table. Framed by conversations with science lab geckos Galileo and Newton (among the narrators in the first book), these Twitch episodes stand alone but will certainly lead readers and listeners to look for more.
This field trip to remember will appeal to eager chapter-book readers, fans of talking-animal stories, and teachers looking for an engaging read-aloud. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4167-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Lively fun with animal friends.
Has Plum’s pep deserted him?
Several animals from the Athensville Zoo are on their way to visit an elementary school. Overconfident Itch the ningbing (an Australian marsupial), unaware that zookeeper Lizzie will be doing all the talking, looks forward to “lecturing eager young minds.” Plum, the usually chipper peacock, on the other hand, is anxious—maybe the schoolchildren won’t like him or he’ll get lost. So when they arrive at the school to find the students have been sent home due to a blizzard, Plum is relieved. The animals are left in a school gym for the night until three self-important class mice free them. Itch heads for the library to meet the learned turtle, but Plum reluctantly explores with his friends. When his anxiety peaks, they reassure him, and when the mice reject Meg, another peacock, as “borrrring” and uncool, they buoy her as well before everyone comes together to save Itch, who finds himself outside and stranded in a snowdrift. Unlike Leave It to Plum (2022), this is not a mystery, and the relationship focus shifts from Lizzie to the rodents, but the pace is brisk, and sequel seekers will be pleased to revisit familiar characters (if dismayed that Itch’s longing for knowledge leads to his downfall). In Phelan’s engaging grayscale pen-and-wash illustrations, Lizzie has short curly hair; text and art cue her as Latine.
Lively fun with animal friends. (how to draw Plum) (Chapter book. 7-10)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-06-307920-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading.
When Franklin School principal Mr. Boone announces a pet-show fundraiser, white third-grader Cody—whose lack of skill and interest in academics is matched by keen enthusiasm for and knowledge of animals—discovers his time to shine.
As with other books in this series, the children and adults are believable and well-rounded. Even the dialogue is natural—no small feat for a text easily accessible to intermediate readers. Character growth occurs, organically and believably. Students occasionally, humorously, show annoyance with teachers: “He made mad squinty eyes at Mrs. Molina, which fortunately she didn’t see.” Readers will be kept entertained by Cody’s various problems and the eventual solutions. His problems include needing to raise $10 to enter one of his nine pets in the show (he really wants to enter all of them), his troublesome dog Angus—“a dog who ate homework—actually, who ate everything and then threw up afterward”—struggles with homework, and grappling with his best friend’s apparently uncaring behavior toward a squirrel. Serious values and issues are explored with a light touch. The cheery pencil illustrations show the school’s racially diverse population as well as the memorable image of Mr. Boone wearing an elephant costume. A minor oddity: why does a child so immersed in animal facts call his male chicken a rooster but his female chickens chickens?
Another winner from Mills, equally well suited to reading aloud and independent reading. (Fiction. 7-10)Pub Date: June 14, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-374-30223-8
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
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BOOK REVIEW
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