School Fever - Softcover

Bagert, Brod

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0147514509 ISBN 13: 9780147514509

Publisher: Puffin Books, 2015

Synopsis

A kid's-eye view of school, crammed with enough funny to fill a big yellow bus!

Snappy and hilarious in true Brod Bagert style, these goofy poems are united by their kid authenticity and quirky school themes. From a computer virus that one kid claims is sure to keep him homesick until summer vacation, to the librarian who tames "the savage beast" (a mouse run amok in the library), to a superhero recruited to scare off the school bully, this is most definitely not your typical poetry collection. Robert Neubecker's bright, dynamic artwork propels each poem into another stratosphere of funny. By the end, kids will have contracted a different strain of school fever altogether.

"Kids will appreciate the humor and will see themselves in the high-energy narrator"—Booklist

About this title

About the Author

Brod Bagert (www.brodbagert.com) is the author of many books of poetry for children and adults, including Giant Children (illustrated by Todd Arnold) and Shout! (illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa). He lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Robert Neubecker (neubecker.com) is the author and illustrator of several award-winning books for kids, including the Wow! series. His art can be found in publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Business Week, Time, The Wall Street Journal, and the online magazine Slate.com. He lives in Park City, Utah.

From School Library Journal

Grade 1–3—The 21 poems in this collection chronicle a boy's school year. The book begins with "School Fever," when he claims that he has to stay home due to a computer virus ("I was on a school computer/And it played a dirty trick,/It zapped me with a virus/And I feel a little sick"). The last poem shows the start of summer vacation, when he realizes how much he's learned throughout the year ("Nine whole months of learning/It's been an awesome year,/And I'm headed for a future/I no longer have to fear"). These two examples show both the book's strengths (in the first one, a breezy humor and fresh eye) and weaknesses (an adult didacticism in the last one). In between, there are poems about a crush on his teacher, a mouse in the school library, and wishing a superhero would rescue him from a bully. Most of them read aloud well, although occasionally Bagert resorts to padded language to make the rhythm work (for instance, in "The Savage Beast," the librarian, "...read with great expression,/Her voice was really dramatic"). The colorful pictures have bold lines, comic exaggeration, and an effective simplicity that match the verses well. A bit of a mixed bag, this book is not as entirely successful as Carol Shields's Lunch Money: And Other Poems about School (Dutton, 1995).—Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL
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About this edition

• Publisher: Puffin Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0147514509
• ISBN 13: 9780147514509
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Neubecker Robert