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Author: Lynne Jonell
Rating: 
Reading Level: 4th - 6th grade
Pages: 352
Publisher: Henry Holt
Edition: Hardcover, 2007It's impressive how Jonell manages to inform the readers of all characters' personalities, feelings, and actions without ever straying away from Emmy's perspective: readers only know what she sees, hears, and thinks. The outlandish circumstances with all the super(magical?)-powers of the rodents are accompanied by a gentle tale of friendship, longing for parental love, and the essence of stable families. I mentally applauded the several jabs at the absurdity of the over-scheduling of our children.
The illustration with the flip-book margin of Rat falling and Emmy catching him ceases being a gimmick when it visually sums up the spirit of the story: "Don't worry. We're friends. I will catch you if you fall."
Author:Jeremy Tankard (illustrator)
Rating:
Reading Level: Pre-k to 2nd
Pages:
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Edition: Hardcover, 2007I LOVE the grumpiness of Bird and his host of 4-legged friends who totally are so clueless to his mood. The Wahaha-WOW ending is so unexpected and satisfying. There is a great momentum building through this seemingly simplistic picture book.
Tankard's thick-black-outlined endearing group of animals and brush-painting trees, accompanied by bleached photo background is dexterously done. There is just so much to look at and such a joy to read aloud and to share!
Author: N.D. Wilson
Rating:
Reading Level: 4th to 7th
Pages: 224
Publisher: Random House
Edition: Hardcover, 2007A great survival story, a thrilling adventure, an intriguing mystery, and a tall tale. It reminds me of Paulsen's survival stories but seems to have even more layers and with incredibly enjoyable wry humor: "It was a face deciding what to say and how to say it, and the truth didn't look as if it was a factor in the decision making."
"The bottom of the trash bag was full of boiled crawdad dead. Those remaining in the pool wandered about, confused by the sudden spaciousness."
"Jeffrey was dragged out by his shoulders and then propped up with his back against the couch. The bag was still blood-glued to the back of his head and stood out around it like a white plastic halo."
Yup, a few gruesome scenes: for example: dealing with and collecting useful things from a dead body. I loved those scenes.
Author: Patrick Carman
Rating: 
Reading Level:
Pages: 330
Publisher: Little, Brown
Edition: Hardcover, 2007This grabbed me and wouldn't let me go the entire time! Instantly, I was intrigued by the
Frankeinstein quote and the strange conversation between the two disembodied voices. Edgar's tale then unfolds with lots of fast paced action and suspenseful plot twists, a cast of well-delineated major and minor characters, and wonderful illustrations (I'd like just a few more... um... maybe a dozen more, of Squire Broel's pencil drawings, actually!) I know that there is quite a bit of environmental message attached and all the science might not be accurately scientific and border on magical elements, but I bought it all: the world, the characters, the events, and wasn't even that distraught to find no ending to this particular portion of the tale.
I was reluctant to start reading the book, since there is a half-wrap dust jacket and a Bonus CD-ROM -- gimmicks that made me skeptical: the book must not be that great if they need to include special cover design and extra materials to draw readers! Glad that I did read it, really glad!
This sounds really fun. Thanks for the rec!
Someone compares this to a Dahl story and I asked my 3rd grade daughter if she feels that way. She disagreed, saying that there is a deliberate "mystery and problem solving" going on (actually, there are more than one mystery in the story) which makes it different from stories by Roald Dahl. She couldn't put it down, finishing it in 2 days!
Reading that your daughter couldn't put it down is the best review of all. Thanks for passing that on!