Fergus and Zeke

Reviewed by: Jill - Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School, Brunswick, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: December 13, 2017

Review

This is a solid early chapter book for emerging readers in first through third grade. Fergus is a mouse who happens to be a very contented class pet; he always follows all of the rules of the classroom. When a class trip to the Museum of Natural History is announced, Fergus assumes that he will be attending too. Upon learning that class pets don't generally attend class field trips, Fergus realizes that he will have to break a rule and sneak into one of the backpacks so that he, too, can see the butterflies and wish on a shooting star in the Planetarium. At the Museum, Fergus does not have a field-trip buddy...enter Zeke. He is a mouse who lives in the Museum and he agrees to be Fergus's buddy and show him around. Ross's breezy illustratons show the two mice interacting with each exhibit as they move from room to room supporting Messner's text without overwhelming it. When Fergus and Zeke get caught up in the dinosaur room, they almost miss the arrival of the bus for the class's return to school. As they rush back to the backpacks, Fergus invites Zeke to come along to live in the comfortable classroom (where some favorites include story time and music class) and the class acquires a new class pet. A nice read alound prior to a class field trip. A great choice for those readers ready for a chapter book as it includes repetition and the use of sight words to scaffold reading success.

Overall Book Score: very good

About the Book

Author:

Messner, Kate

Illustrator: Ross, Heather

Illustration Quality: good

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Book Type: chapter book fiction

Genre: adventure

Audience: grades k-3

Binding Type: reinforced trade binding

Binding Quality: very good

ISBN: 9780763678463

Price: 14.99

Movie Monsters from Godzilla to Frankenstein

Movie Monsters from Godzilla to Frankenstein

Reviewed by: Jill - Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School, Brunswick, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: December 13, 2017

Review

Elementary-aged readers gravitate toward this type of book because monsters are fascinating. The premise of the short (32 pages) book is that monsters have been depicted in movies (and literature) for over a hundred years. It seems that the subtitle should read from Frankenstein to Godzilla (or to today) as Frankenstein was the first monster to be shown on the screen and the book mentions many other monsters, using photographs and screen shots from films and jumping around from monster to monster and time period to time period. It also tosses in the idea that science has mimicked some of the ideas of monster movies like the work of scientist Henry Markram who studies the human brain and hopes to be able to one day build a copy of one (a modern Frankenstein?). It is a little jarring to see an image of a person with prosthetic legs in a monster book because, though the idea is that we are creating prosthetics to help people live better lives, equating a person with prosthetic legs to the idea of Frankenstein's work can be confusing to young readers. Titles like this are great to get dormant readers interested, but this book could have been better organized and laid out. Part of a series.

Overall Book Score: fair