[R3librarians] Tuesday's Trash & Treasures

[Cindy Franklin]

Two book reviews for you today.  I absolutely LOVED both of these
books!

Title: Hansel and Diesel / written and
illustrated by David Gordon.
Publisher: Laura
Geringer, c2006.
ISBN: 0-06-058123-9


Interest Level: K-3
Reading
Level: 1.9 

(Don't rule this one out at the middle
school level, though.  Would be fun for compare/contrast.)
School Library Journal (July 1, 2006)

PreS-Gr 2-Gordon's third tricked-up automotive
interpretation of a familiar children's tale is Grimm with a gimmick:
Hansel and Diesel are sibling pickup trucks (so the text reads, though
they're pictured as flatbeds) who wander from their junkyard home in
search of fuel (trailing bolts in lieu of bread crumbs) and into the
clutches of the Wicked Winch. She lives in "the most beautiful gas
station they could have imagined-right in the middle of the
junkyard!" When the thirsty little vehicles help themselves to deep
glugs of her warm gasoline, the Winch inquires, "Guzzle, guzzle, drip
and drool, who is drinking all my fuel?" The little ones are saved
from the jaws of her ominous metal shredder by their worried parents, who
push the winch to her just reward and admonish their evilly
gleeful-looking kids: "Don't you ever leave home and scare us like
that again!" The junkyard-as-forest is effectively rendered, with
bleak towers of snow-covered tires giving readers an idea of the relative
diminutiveness of the duo, and the candy-land confection of a gas station
is an able stand-in for the classic house of bread and cakes. Among the
missing are the familial tensions that serve as the original story's
energy source, and the girl-power rescue that makes quick-thinking Gretel
a particular favorite. Fans of Gordon's The Ugly Truckling (2004) and The
Three Little Rigs (2005, both HarperCollins)-which put in
shameless-self-promotion cameo appearances here-will probably overlook
what's lacking, but others may want to stick with something closer to the
original.-Kathy Krasniewicz, Perrot Library, Old Greenwich, CT Copyright
2006 Reed Business Information.




Title: Punished! / by David Lubar.
Publisher: Darby Creek Pub., c2006.
ISBN: 1-58196-042-5

Reading Level: 3.9
Interest
Level: 3-6

(One of the reviews below suggests using
this book as a read-aloud.  What fun!  Good for elementary and
middle school)
Booklist (May 1, 2006 (Vol. 102, No. 17))

Gr. 4-7. Wordplay is at the heart of this funny,
surreal adventure in which even the title is a pun. While roughhousing at
the library with his friend Benedict, Logan literally runs into an elderly
patron, who, as a punishment, saddles Logan with an unusual curse:
everything he tries to say comes out as a pun. After a day in which even
his dog groans at his tedious jokes, Logan is desperate to lift the curse.
The cure, according to the elderly spell caster, involves more wordplay:
Logan must hunt down examples of oxymorons, anagrams, and palindromes.
Younger kids may need help with a few of the more sophisticated puns
("I was jest doing wit you asked"), but with an appealing mix of
magic and silliness, Lubar captures Logan's frustrations when he is
unjustly accused of disobedience, his urgency to solve his dilemma, and
the linguistic fun: "I realized I had two palindromes living at home
. . . Mom and Dad."Teachers will find plenty of uses for this.
School Library Journal (May 1, 2006)

Gr 3-5-Logan knows he shouldn't have been playing tag
in the library reference stacks and he's sorry that he crashed into
Professor Wordsworth. But what did the strange old man mean when he said
that Logan should be "punished?" Suddenly, the boy starts
speaking in puns-really awful puns-and he can't stop. His family and
friends think he's just smarting off, but Logan quickly realizes that he
is under a curse. According to the professor, there is only one way to
break the spell. Logan has three days to collect seven oxymorons, seven
anagrams, and seven palindromes-or the "pun"-ishment will
continue forever. This lighthearted fantasy would be an excellent
classroom read-aloud. The language concepts are deftly explained and the
clever, wordplay-filled dialogue provides numerous examples. There is an
emphasis on problem-solving and self-reliance as well. Logan uses the
dictionary and experiments with Scrabble tiles as he races against the
clock to find the required answers. The short text and lively cover art
will attract young readers, who will howl at the atrocious puns-and repeat
them at the earliest opportunity. Be prepared for an epidemic of juvenile
punsters.-Elaine E. Knight, Lincoln Elementary Schools, IL Copyright 2006
Reed Business Information.



Cindy Franklin 
Library & Technology Specialist

Region III ESC 
cfranklin at esc3.net 
361-573-0731 ext 277

www.esc3.net/mlib 



 

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