Scooter - Softcover

Williams, Vera B

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0064409686 ISBN 13: 9780064409681

Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2001

Synopsis

Elana is thrilled to be living all the way up on the eighth floor of 514 Melon Hill Avenue, an apartment building in New York City. But with her new life come changes--and challenges. Is her shiny scooter up to the crags and potholes of city sidewalks? Will she be able to make new friends? Can she find a way to help out little Petey, who everyone says doesn't talk? And will the kids from Melon Hill win any blue ribbons at the Borough-Wide Field Day?

As Elana coasts toward discoveries and surprises in her new home, she keeps one thing in mind: Anything can happen as long as you have a winning attitude and a cool set of wheels!

Elana Rose Rosen and her mother have just moved to a new apartment, and this is Elana's story about the event-filled summer that follows and the new neighbors and friends that become an important part of her life. "A pleasure to read....A story, told with tremendous inventiveness, of the satisfactions and intellectual excitements of childhood, of the worlds seen, explained and illustrated through the remarkable eyes of a remarkable girl."--New York Times Book Review.

About this title

About the Author

Vera B. Williams began her career in children’s books by illustrating Hooray for Me!, written by Remy Charlip with Lilian Moore. Her beloved A Chair for My Mother won multiple awards, including a Caldecott Honor, and “More, More, More,” Said the Baby also received a Caldecott Honor. Vera B. Williams was the recipient of the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award; she was awarded the 2009 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature; and she was the US nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2004. Vera B. Williams died on October 16, 2015, shortly before this book was completed.

Vera B. Williams began her career in children’s books by illustrating Hooray for Me!, written by Remy Charlip with Lilian Moore. Her beloved A Chair for My Mother won multiple awards, including a Caldecott Honor, and “More, More, More,” Said the Baby also received a Caldecott Honor. Vera B. Williams was the recipient of the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award; she was awarded the 2009 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature; and she was the US nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2004. Vera B. Williams died on October 16, 2015, shortly before this book was completed.

From Kirkus Reviews

In a narrative akin, in its liveliness and immediacy, to Williams's Stringbean's Trip to the Shining Sea (1988), Elana Rose Rosen describes her first ``2 months + 1 week or 9 weeks + 6 days or...5,961,600 seconds'' in Melon Hill, an urban complex where she and her mom share one-room apartment 8E. From the first day (``I don't know any of those kids...I'm not moping'') to the Labor Day celebration when Elana and the kids she's gotten to know--plus her best friend/cousin, visiting from Toronto--shine in their individual ways, Williams builds a sense of a particular community with every casual-seeming detail. Many of these relate to little Petey, who has selfish, inept parents and has never spoken until he whispers an important message to Elana; to old Mrs. Greiner (``the Whiner''), who turns out to be lovable as well as capable; and to Elana's hard-working mom, who goes to school and holds down a job. The rough marginal illustrations, while credibly childlike, deftly capture both character and action; with creative dexterity, Williams also varies the format with lists, charts (``Diagram of the Zig Zag Day'' of trials and triumphs), healthful recipes (a soup from leftovers could be adapted to any refrigerator's contents), and succinct themes built on initials from chapter titles (``Petey'': ``Petey doesn't/Ever/Talk/Even when he wants to--/Y?''). Disarming in its apparent simplicity, an upbeat, innovative, delightfully engaging, and beautifully crafted first novel about everyday life in the inner city. (Fiction. 7-11) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0064409686
• ISBN 13: 9780064409681
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 160
• Illustrator: Williams Vera B