The Rocket Book by Peter Newell

Genre: Children, Humor
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

From Goodreads:
"When Fritz,
the Janitor's bad kid,
Went snooping in the basement,
He found a rock snugly hid
Beneath the window casement.

He struck a match with one fell swoop;
Then, on the concrete kneeling,
he lit the rocket and-she-oop!
It shot up through the ceiling."

Long before Richard Scarry or Dr. Seuss, an American artist delighted a generation of children and their parents with hilarious, topsy-turvy illustrations and slightly subversive tales told in rhyme. This was illustrator/author Peter Newell.

Originally published in 1912, The Rocket Book remains as profoundly enjoyable and incredibly popular as ever. This classic work will delight readers of all ages with the story of how a rocket launched from the basement floor of an apartment building and how it interrupts the day.

Peter Newell (1862-1924) began his career as an artist drawing portraits, using crayons as his medium. In his fantastic humor, many believe, is the first appearance of the gentle humor of the absurd which The New Yorkerhas subsequently developed to such a high level.

My Thoughts:
Oh my, what a fun book to read  The rhymes were charming.  We see the consequences of on bad act and how they are perceived.  The janitor's son finds a rocket in the basement and lights it. The rocket takes off and goes through each of the floors above it.  On each floor we have a different incident taking place that is destroyed by the rocket coming through. The people in the apartments seem to be oblivious to what truly happened until it reaches the top floor.  I loved the way each floor had a two stanza rhyming poem to explain what happened.  I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. This is one of those charming books to be enjoyed by young and old alike.  The pictures definitely have an old time feel.  If I were to meet the author I would have to say, "More Please."

Time Square Time Shift – S.W. Lothian

Genre: Middle Grade, Science Fiction, Suspense, Humor
Source: I received a review copy from the author

 This is another wonderful series from this author.  In this series we meet Dr. Rex Hudson and his family.  Dr. Hudson and his assistant are in Peru at Machu Pichu looking for something important.  They find a black oblisk and have it shipped back to his home.  Once home he shares the exciting find with two of his three children, twins Eva and Lewis.  While inspecting it the three of them are sucked into it and find themselves in Time Square where all time goes through.  Unfortunately when they are sucked through the youngest son Thomas is left at home with his aunt who had been staying with them while their father is away.  Once in Time Square Dr. Hudson realizes by bringing back the oblisk he has upset time and time travelers everywhere are stuck.  He and the children must find a way to get back home and get the oblisk back to where it belongs.  Unfortunately the oblisk is stolen making their job more difficult.  The children are set to the task of helping to rescue those stuck in time.

Like his previous books in the Quest Series, S.W. Lothian is a master at creating time travel stories. The oher thing I love about his books is that he has the ability to tie adventure, suspense and humor all together in one book.  This is definitely the recipe for hooking a middle grade reader. I am so glad I had the opportunity to read and review this book. It is one I will put on my shelves at school and then sit and wait impatiently for the next book in the series.

Author Bio From Amazon

S.W. Lothian is a funny and cool guy from Australia. His kids call him 'Phil Dunphy', because he reminds them of the dad from Modern Family. He isn't sure whether this is a compliment or not, but he takes it as a compliment.
As an imaginative kid he dreamed of creating exciting worlds and funky characters, and thought he'd be the most famous person to ever do this. He loved to draw and was dux of Art in High School. Top of his dream list was to be an animator. He loved watching all those classic cartoons on TV - Scooby Doo, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Road Runner, Wacky Races, The Simpsons, the list goes on and on.

BOOM! Reality hit. The dreams were parked as the corporate world beckoned. Then, 25 years later, the long-held dream to create erupted like a jam donut in a microwave and S.W. started writing fiction for kids of all ages.

His books can be summed up as fun-action-packed-time-travel-adventures-for-the-kid-in-everyone. He writes stories to excite, inspire, teach and thrill. Stories with awesome edge-of-your-seat fun. Stories that let kids escape to new places, and adults remember the dreams of their own childhood.

His debut novel, The Golden Scarab, was a 2013 READERS' FAVORITE BOOK AWARD FINALIST.

S.W. Lothian can be followed via

Twitter 

Facebook 

Websites: www.swlothian.com and www.timesquaretheshift.wordpress.com

Student Saturday: The World According to Humphrey - Betty G. Birney

Student Reviewer: Emily   

From Goodreads:

You can learn a lot about life by observing another species. That’s what Humphrey was told when he was first brought to Room 26. And boy, is it true! In addition to his classroom escapades, each weekend this amazing hamster gets to sleep over with a different student, like Lower-Your-Voice-A.J. and Speak-Up-Sayeh. Soon Humphrey learns to read, write, and even shoot rubber bands (only in self-defense, of course). Humphrey has friends, adventures, and a cage with a lock-that doesn’t- lock. His life would be perfect, if only the teacher, Mrs. Brisbane, wasn’t out to get him!

Student's Thoughts:
This book is one of the best books I have ever read!  Humphrey is a hamster that lived with Mrs. Mac and she brings him to school because he is the classroom pet.  One day Mrs. Mac tells Humphrey  something.  She is moving back to Brazil!  The truth is she was a sub teacher for about two years for Mrs. Bristone because her husband got hurt in a car accident. I recommend this book to someone who loves animals and is up for laughing and adventure.

 

Scary School, by Derek the Ghost

Publisher:  HarperCollins

Pages:  256

Source:  Review copy from publisher

Genre:  MG, Humor

Scary School would be the perfect book to read aloud to the class at the beginning of the new school year.  As a teacher I’m always looking for that book that will hook my reluctant readers.  This is that book.  Imagine a school where monsters and humans go to school together.  Imagine that all of your teachers are monsters.  Hey, the students already think teachers are monsters for giving homework so this isn’t a far stretch of the imagination.  Imagine you are on a tour of the school with your tour guide Derick the Ghost.  He had died the previous year in a terrible accident at the school.  The new kid, Charles Nukid thinks everyone is real friendly when they holler, “Hey new kid”.

The teachers and other members of the school are wonderful to read about.  I laughed and laughed  when I read about Nurse Hairymoles.  She can cure whatever ails you. 

However, she makes sure you get something that is even worse.

The Ghoul Games were cool.  We are always talking about starting our school year by building community with our students so they learn up front to get along.  This book is a subtle way to teach students life lessons such as; no one is better than anyone else just because they are different. 

Will I recommend this book to my student?  You bet I will.  Currently I have an electronic version.  However, I will be purchasing a copy for my shelves along with a copy of the sequel “Monsters on the March”.  The illustrations by Scott M. Fischer are absolutely wonderful. 

Check out the book and then purchase the second one, to be released March 26.  This is a definite must read.  It is a book both young and old will enjoy.

Chomp - Carl Hiaasen

Pubisher:  Knopf Books for Young Readers (releases March 27, 2012)

Pages:  304

Source:  Received a review copy from publisher

Genre:  Middle Grade, Humorous Adventure

From Amazon:

Wahoo Cray lives in a zoo.  His father is an animal wrangler, so he’s grown up with all manner of gators, snakes, parrots, rats, monkeys, snappers, and more in his backyard.  The critters he can handle.  His father is the unpredictable one.

When his dad takes a job with a reality TV show called “Expedition Survival!”, Wahoo figures he’ll have to do a bit of wrangling himself—to keep his dad from killing Derek Badger, the show’s boneheaded star, before the shoot is over.

But the job keeps getting more complicated.  Derek badger seems to actually believe his PR and insists on using wild animals for his stunts.  And Wahoo’s acquired a shadow named Tuna—a girl who’s sporting a shiner courtesy of her old man and needs a place to hide out.

They’ve only been on location in the Everglades for a day before Derek gets bitten by a bat and goes missing in a storm.  Search parties head out and promptly get lost themselves.  And then Tuna’s dad shows up with a gun. . .

It’s anyone’s guess who will actually survive “Expedition Survival”. . . .

My Thoughts:

One of my favorite places to visit is the Florida Everglades. It is only a few hours south of where I live, and a place I consider to be extremely beautiful and dangerous.  There is a particular tourist attraction that takes customers on an  airboat ride.  My first trip with them was thrilling because we had someone with a Steve Irwin personality.  He loved describing everything; birds, plants, gators, the whole eco-system of the Everglades.  The highlight was getting to hold a live alligator.  When I was given the opportunity to read and review Chomp by Carl Hiaasen I was so excited.  It had gators, reality TV, and the Florida Everglades. In my mind it was everything you could ask for in a book.

The story starts off  funny, with a serious undertone that runs through it.  Wahoo’s father has been unable to work since a frozen iguana fell from a tree and hit him in the head causing a concussion.  His mother has picked up the slack.  Now she has been called out of the country to teach her clients for a few months.  With their finances in a mess she takes the job, leaving her husband and the zoo in Wahoo’s hands.  Shortly after she leaves, Wahoo’s dad  receives a call from “Expedition Survival” wanting to use some of their animals in their reality TV show.  Wahoo’s father Mickey accepts and tries his hardest to work through his pain.  Then he meets Derek, the biggest jerk. 

Derek was one of those characters that you will love to hate.  He is so full of himself as a star that he thinks when he snaps his fingers people should jump.  He makes decisions that could get him killed just because he believes what everyone on the show tells him.  This puts not only himself in danger, but also those around him.

I loved Wahoo’s character.  He not only truly cares about the animals but about people.  The story is full of bullies.  Derek bullies everyone on his show into doing what he wants.  Tuna’s father is the biggest bully of all.  Tuna is the young girl who shows up to hide from her abusive father.  We get a good look at reality TV and it makes you wonder how real it is.  Like Hiaasen’s previous books, “Hoot”, “Flush”, and “Scat”, we find environmental themes running throughout this book.  It is another great book to add to the shelf, to your collection of books by this great author.  I can’t wait to put this on my shelf at school.  The timing could not be better.  We are currently reading “Flush” as a class.  I know I will have students “chomping at the bit”. 

Lawn Boy and Lawn Boy Returns by Gary Paulsen

Publisher:  Yearling Books, 2007
Pages:  88
Genre:  Middle Grades Adventure
Source:  Purchased

Lawn Boy received a gift like no other for his birthday. His grandmother gave him his grandfather's old riding lawnmower. Since he needed a new inner tube for his bicycle he decided to mow a couple of lawns to earn the money. Little did he know when he traded out lawn mowing with a stock broker that his life would change. Here he was, only twelve years old and had more money than he knew what to do with and was the sponsor of a boxer. He had accomplished all of this without his parents knowledge. What would happen when they found out?

This was a really fun and quick read. I can't wait for my students to get their hands on it next year.



P ublisher:  Wendy Lamb Books, 2010
Pages:101
Genre:  Middle Grades Adventure
Source:  Purchased
In the sequel to Lawn Boy, we find the Lawn Boy's business has grown out of control. Now he has lawyers and accountants and bigger problems with taxes, and people who want a piece of his action. I enjoyed this book as much as I did the first one. A must read for all middle schoolers who like adventure.