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/ . / B O O K S ➻ ) - , ) % A G E S ( , + The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip by George Saunders ➸ What You'll Re- member About It: Everything, really. The dreamscape illustra- tions by Lane Smith, the message about em- pathy and community and the importance thinking beyond your- self, the heroine's name (Capable—how great is that?), but really: this one, for me, is all about the writing and the hu- mor. "She soon found that it was not all that much fun being the sort of person who eats a big dinner in a warm house while others shiver on their roofs in the dark. That is, it was fun at first, but then got gradually less fun, until it was really no fun at all." You want a book that gets talked about at the dinner table? This is the one. Deeply wise, generous in spirit. Hard to over- state how much I love it. –Andy The Magic Finger Roald Dahl ➸ It's a long journey in a short book. The main topic is a girl whose neighbors like to hunt, and she so turns them into ducks with her magic finger. Whenever the girl gets frustrated or mad at a person, her magic finger automatically begins to work up. She was born with it. At the end, other neighbors start shooting ducks, and so it starts all over again. It's a combination of girls and boys. Both will like it. It's not like a girly book. –Abby Owly by Andy Runton ➸ Well, Owly is a picture book. There are no words, only sym- bols in a speech bubble. It can get a little sad, like when Owly loses his friend, Wormy. Maybe like up to second grade would like it. It's a comic. One of the greatest ones ever. –Abby Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder ➸ I think I have spent my entire tenure as a parent attempting to recreate the cozy, happy life of the Ingalls family—homesteaders mak- ing their way West in the late 1800s from the Big Woods in Wisconsin to the Great Plains of the Dakotas. It's impossible not to admire their together- ness, their graciousness, their resourcefulness (on page 1 of book 1, Laura is tossing a ball made from a pig's intestines) and finally, their family dinners followed by Pa's raucous fid- dling. In addition to provid- ing beautiful storytelling and can-do inspiration, the series proved to be an endless spring of teaching moments. You're whining about getting more Polly Pockets?! For the first five years of Laura's life the only doll she owned was a corn cob wrapped in a dishtowel! (Did I say teaching moments? I think I meant lecture moments.) –Jenny 45 44 46 41 42 43 40 Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl ➸ This is gonna be hard. I love this book so much. It's about a fox. A fox who promised his wife he would never steal a chicken or whatever, what was it called? Yeah, a chicken. No no no no no. It's like a bird? Never mind. But then he secretly goes on a mission to steal chickens with a mole, Kylie, and they have to avoid these three mean farmers, Bog- gis, Bunce, and Bean. One day, the farmers figure out that the fox is trying to steal their food, so they decide to dig up his home, which is under a tree. Question: how did they know Lunch Lady by Jarrett J. Krosoczka ➸ I totally grew out of this last year, but I liked this series. It's about a lunch lady who is real- ly a superhero but she pretends to be a lunch lady. She has all kinds of cool gadgets and an assistant who makes the gadgets and will go in disguise so she can distract the person they're fighting. Is it funny? No, not very. But you always want to know what's happen- ing next. Boys might like it. It's probably good for seven-year- olds. On the back of each book, it says, 'Serving Justice and Serving Lunch.'" –Phoebe that he lived in a tree? Well, because he snuck out one night and they shot his tail oZ, so that's how they knew where he lived. This book has so many interesting emotions. No, no. So many interesting… parts." On a scale of 1 to 10? 10. –Abby *Abby says: "If there was a 20, I would give this book a 20." But you can give it whatever you want. "Then give it a 20!" The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell ➸ One of our finest poets doing the storytelling, and a young Maurice Sendak provid- ing the woodcutty illustra- tions? Seriously, what could be better? A perfect little fable, starring a hunter and a mermaid, about the comforts of family. "Below them the white-on-green of the waves was lined along the white shore—out beyond, the green sea got bluer and bluer till at last it came to the far-oZ blue of the island. There were small seals on the seal rocks, and the little gray spot out above the waves was a big black- and-white osprey waiting for a fish. But no fish came, and it hung there motionless. Ev- erything lay underneath them like something made for them; things got smaller and smaller in the distance but managed, somehow, to fill the whole world." Now that's writin'! --Andy 13

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