Who Will I Be?: A Halloween Rebus Story - Hardcover

Neitzel, Shirley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060560673 ISBN 13: 9780060560676

Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2005

Synopsis

At the last minute, a girl needs a costumefor a Halloween party.

She has
lace-trimmed pants
a frilly jacket
fancy socks
some foil paper
and her cat

Who will she be?

The same ingredients add up to two different costumes and a surprise ending in this funny rebus story -- a story you will be able to read even if you are just learning how!

About this title

About the Author:

In Her Own Words...

"My earliest memories are of my mother reading aloud. A lot of characters from books were real to me, as our family ritual included bedtime stories for me and chapters from longer books for the older children.

"I wanted to read for myself, so I often lay on the kitchen floor while my mother worked and I 'read' to her from memory. Soon I realized I could tell the story more exactly if I looked carefully at the words on the page. Spelling aloud the words I couldn't figure out, I worked my way through enough stories to satisfy me until our nightly reading session.

"I was eager to start kindergarten, and the day finally came when I walked the mile from our small farm in the western part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula to a one-room school. I watched eagerly as the teacher gave each child a stack of books. When she gave me only one, I was disappointed, but I turned it sideways and read the parts that said 'To the Teacher.' Then I carefully followed the directions. When my teacher said she wanted to talk to my mother, I thought I was in trouble, but it turned out she thought I should work with the first graders. That made me happy because they each had more than one book.

"My love of reading continued. In sixth grade I went to the 'big' school in town. The school had a room with one whole wall filled with books. Immediately, I decided to read every book in that library. A story I wrote was chosen for our school newspaper. I enjoyed people telling me they liked 'My Life as a Pencil.'

"In high school I won some essay contests, so I thought of a career in journalism. But I became a teacher instead so I could continue reading wonderful books for children. I encouraged my students to write, and sometimes I shared my writing with them.

"While planning one assignment for my students, I played with the pattern of the nursery rhyme 'The House That Jack Built.' My students laughed in the right places, and friends encouraged me to send my rhyme to an editor. It took a lot of courage to do that, but I sent it to Greenwillow. The editor-in-chief, Susan Hirschman, liked my rhyme, and chose Nancy Winslow Parker to illustrate it. Nancy drew little pictures to replace some of the words. The result was The Jacket I Wear in the Snow, the first in our series of rhyme-and-rebus books.

"Usually I start with a topic and decide how the story should end. Then I write little snippets of rhyme and, like putting a puzzle together, figure out how each part connects to another. Before I finish, the story changes many times.

"Sometimes when I read my books to children, one of them says, 'Read it again.' I think that's the best reward a writer can have."

Nancy Winslow Parker is the author and illustrator of numerous books for children, including Locks, Crocs, and Skeeters; Bugs, written by Joan Wright Richards; and Money, Money, Money. She lives in New York City and Mantoloking, New Jersey.

From Booklist:

PreS-Gr. 2. Neitzel and Parker have collaborated on eight previous rebus books, includingI'm Not Feeling Well Today (2001). In this one, a little girl is picking out items to wear for her Halloween costume: lace-trimmed pants; a swirling scarf; a frilly, beaded blouse; a tablecloth. Children will easily follow the rebus that supplements the rhyming text, but they may not be able to guess what the child is going to be. There are clues in the artwork indicate that she may be a pirate, so seeing her outfitted as Little Bo Peep is a surprise. Then, in a double twist, the girl decides that she may not want to be Bo Peep after all and uses the same gear for a pirate costume. Executed in watercolors, colored pencils, and black pen, Parker's jaunty pictures capture the story's essence. Especially cute is the girl's black cat, dressed up as Bo Peep's lamb. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0060560673
• ISBN 13: 9780060560676
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Parker Nancy Winslow