SCAT

Hiaasen, Carl
SCAT
Alfred A. Knopf, 2009

Carl Hiaasen continues with another environmental book with SCAT. His other books for children are Hoot, about endangered owls, and Flush, about dumping toxic waste in the water.

Nick and Marta go to school at Truman School in southwestern Florida. They have the strangest and strictest biology teacher in the school, Mrs. Starch. Everyone is afraid of Mrs. Starch except for Duane "Smoke" Scrod Jr. When an all-day field trip is scheduled to Black Vine Swamp out near the Big Cypress Preserve strange things start to happen. Mrs. Starch disappears in the swamp when the students are evacuated because of a fire nearby. She doesn't return to school with the students and she is missing.

Nick and Marta think something more is wrong after the police come to school and interview everyone who went on the field trip. Smoke is also missing for a few days but when he does return he is the model student-something very different than he was before the the fire. Things get really interesting when the police come for Smoke and he runs away.

Read the story to find out what happens to Mrs. Starch and Smoke and find out what Scat means in this book.

Mrs. Wardall

Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: a tall, thin tale

Hopkinson, Deborah
Pictures by John Hendrix

Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: a tall, thin tale (Introducing His Forgotten Frontier Friend)
Schwartz & Wade Books, 2008

Our story takes place in Knob Creek, Kentucky, in 1816. We find 7-year-old Abe bringing wood in for his mother. We meet another boy named Benjamin Austin Gollaher--Austin for short. Abe and Austin head off towards Knob Creek as Abe's mama warns them to stay away from the water. The author, Deborah Hopkinson, gets the reader involved in the story by asking the reader questions and by having you clap for the boys. The illustrator does a great job of showing us the the wild running creek and the noise that is makes. We jump then to Abe's presidency and we wonder what has been the truth and what has been made up in this tall, thin tale.

Read this story to see what you think. Make sure you read the author's note at the beginning of the story if you want more information on Abe Lincoln and the research that the author did while she was writing this book.

The author, Deborah Hopkinson signed our copy and reminds us to "Mind your mother and learn to swim!"

Mrs. Wardall

Keena Ford and the Second Grade Mix-up

Thompson, Melissa, illustrated by Frank Morrison
KEENA FORD AND THE SECOND GRADE MIX-UP
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2008

Keena Ford is much like Junie B. Jones, Judy Moody and Clementine. Keena receives a new journal a few days before the beginning of the school year. We experience her first 2 weeks of school. Some of the things we read about are Keena not being in the same class as her best friend Eric, being put in the all girl classroom with Linny Berry who she got into a fight with last year and dealing with her older, middle school, brother.

This book would be a good book for a first or second grader. Read the book to find out what the mix-up is and how things turn out in the end.

Mrs. W