Russell Rides Again (Puffin Chapters) - Softcover

Hurwitz, Johanna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140388427 ISBN 13: 9780140388428

Publisher: Puffin Books, 1998

Synopsis

As he nears the age of six, Russell Michaels begins kindergarten, and with his friend, Jeremy, decides to play a trick on the teacher

About this title

About the Author:

Johanna Hurwitz is the author of over five dozen books for young readers. She is the recipient of many state awards, including the Texas Bluebonnet Award, the Kentucky Bluegrass Award, and the Garden State Children's Choice Award. She lives in Great Neck, NY, and Wilmington, VT.

Johanna Hurwitz always knew she wanted to be a writer. She started by telling stories to her brother, who is six years her junior, and she's been making up stories ever since. Born and raised in New York City, she earned her B.A. degree from Queens College and went on to receive a master's in library science from Columbia University. She embarked on a career as a children's librarian, but she never forgot that one day she wanted to write books, too.

She worked at the New York Public Library and in a variety of other public and school library positions. She also taught graduate courses in children's literature and storytelling at Queens College. When she and her husband, Uri--a college teacher and writer-and their children, Nomi and Beni, moved to Long Island, she continued her library work.

Although she had told original stories to her children, it was not until they were well along in school that Mrs. Hurwitz actually began to write down her stories. That's why, when children ask her how long it takes to write a book, she replies that her first, Busybody Nora, took her whole life.

But since then she has been writing with regularity, portraying with humor and sympathy the everyday incidents that are so important to children. She is particularly fond of seven- to nine-year-olds, because they are " so very open and get excited about small things," and she enjoys writing realistic fiction for and about them.

That these youngsters are equally fond of Mrs. Hurwitz's books is obvious. She has received many child-chosen state awards, including the Texas Bluebonnet Award, the Wyoming Indian Paintbrush Award, the Kentucky Bluegrass Award, the Garden State Children's Choice Award, the West Virginia Children's Book Award, and others.

In recent years, Johanna Hurwitz has crisscrossed the United States from Juneau, Alaska, to Jackson, Mississippi, and from San Diego, California, to St. Albans, Vermont. She has even spoken abroad, from Morocco to Mozambique and from Portugal to Nicaragua. On these trips she has met and spoken to schoolchildren, teachers, librarians, and parents. She has made many new friends and has often brought home new ideas for her next book.

From Publishers Weekly:

Hoban's endearing drawings accompany events in Hurwitz's sequel to Rip-Roaring Russell, the tad who lives in the New York apartment house where Busybody Nora and her brother, Super-Duper Teddy, are also at home. Russell is five now, ready to tackle kindergarten. The first day is better than nursery school for the graduate. Russell and his buddy Jeremy particularly enjoy tricking the teacher by trading identity tags, answering to the other's name when called on. But the jig is up when Jeremy gets sick and the school nurse is about to call Russell's mother to come for her fevered son. There are four episodes written in the author's unfailingly engaging style. The last one features starchy Russell's sixth birthday and the gala celebration crowned by his parents' gift, a spanking twowheeler. After a long struggle, he masters the bicycle's temperamental wobbles and is ready for more worlds to conquer.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Puffin Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0140388427
• ISBN 13: 9780140388428
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 96