Monday, November 30, 2009
The Dunderheads by Paul Fleischman
Miss Breakbone hates kids. Especially the time-squandering, mindwandering, doodling, dozing dunderheads in her class. But when she confiscates Junkyard’s crucial fi nd, she fi nally goes too far. Enter Wheels (and his souped-up bike with forty-eight extra gears), Pencil (who can draw anything from memory), Spider (look up and you’ll fi nd him), and their fellow misfi ts in a spectacular display of teamwork aimed at teaching Miss Breakbone a lesson she won’t soon forget. From the incomparable Paul Fleischman comes a winning cast of underdogs — and one of the most terrifying teachers you’ll ever meet — brought to vivid life in David Roberts’s quirky, hilarious illustrations.
I really, really enjoyed this book. It’s classified as a picture book at my library, which it is, I suppose, but it has a really great story. It feels more like a novel, a short novel with lots of pictures (a graphic novel, if you will?) The evil teacher (who starts off the book by yelling at the children, so you know she's evil - even if the name Miss Breakbone didn't tip it off) confiscates a boy’s toy cat – it was supposed to be a gift to his mother, and now he has nothing to give her. So the rest of the students, rallied by one called Einstein, all work together to get it back. It’s a little bit like The Mysterious Benedict Society meets late-90s Saturday morning cartoons, but it makes for a fun book. The small details in the illustrations had me wanting more; they even made me wonder a bit about the teacher’s life (I have a feeling it would be a fascinating story) while still firmly rooting for the children.
Pair it with:
The Mysterious Benedict Society
Miss Nelson is Missing
I got this book: from my library