This Month's Book Reviews

A western frontier adventure series for boys and girls

Gary Paulsen is one of the most popular of children's authors. One five title series of his begins with "Mr. Tucket," the story of a young teen-ager who, after being captured from a wagon train by Indians, is set free by a mountain man. The young boy from the east is turned into a replica of a mountain man himself, well able to cope with the western frontier of the 1840's. A "Publishers Weekly" review calls the book "…a real knock 'em, sock 'em ripsnorter guaranteed to keep any boy or any girl …enthralled from the first page to the last…" Like any good children's author, Paulsen manages to include some history background while holding young readers absorbed in an adventure story.

 

How different kids respond to the absence of a teacher
in their classroom

"Flying Solo" by Ralph Fletcher, as the title suggests, deals with the story of how a group of sixth grade kids respond to an unplanned absence of their teacher. Actually, the kids' decision to try to run their classroom on their own without a teacher being present works out pretty well. What the kids didn't account for was their own lack of understanding as to why certain kids behaved as they were likely to do. However, the reader is supplied with home background details that the characters themselves are unaware of for each other. One of the lessons for young readers may be to be less judgmental about their classmates. Of course, most young readers will find any story interesting in which "kids rule."

A humorous series for kids
featuring a schoolroom's pet hamster

Author Betty G. Birney has written a series of books about Humphrey, a pet hamster in an elementary school classroom. This unusually insightful hamster is not only capable of understanding human speech and describing all the assorted personalities in a classroom, but the little creature has taught himself to keep notes hidden in his cage. He even keeps his own dictionary with definitions of words he hears being used in the classroom. Of course, his misperceptions will keep a young reader in stitches. "Surprises according to Humphrey" is just one of four titles that have appeared thus far. This just might be the series that turns your child into an avid reader of novels.

Can competing in a contest for a world's record
help kids learn math?

Author Shelley Pearsall in her book "All of the Above" bases her fictional story set in Cleveland on an actual event that took place in California. Young readers can relate to the varied backgrounds of the middle school students featured in the book. Probably, many young readers can relate to the disinterest the kids in the story have in mathematics. Teachers can relate to the frustration that Mr. Collins, the math teacher, has in trying to motivate his class members to want to learn middle school mathematics. Surprisingly, the combined efforts of the frustrated teacher and the unmotivated kids make for an interesting read.