Regarding the Fountain (Regarding The. . ., 1) - Softcover

Klise, Kate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380793474 ISBN 13: 9780380793471

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1999

Synopsis

The Dry Creek Middle School drinking fountain has sprung a leak, so principal Walter Russ dashes off a request to Flowing Waters Fountains, Etc.

...We need a new drinking fountain. Please send a catalog.

Designer Flo Waters responds:

"I'd be delighted...but please understand that all of my fountains are custom-made."

Soon the fountain project takes on a life of its own, one chronicled in letters, postcards, memos, transcripts, and official documents. The school board president is up in arms. So is Dee Eel, of the water-supply company. A scandal is brewing, and Mr. Sam N.'s fifth grade class is turning up a host of hilarious secrets buried deep beneath the fountain.

About this title

Review:

How could a simple request for a new water fountain go so very, very off-track? When Principal Wally Russ writes to fountain designer Florence Waters to ask her to replace Dry Creek Middle School's busted drinking fountain, he little suspects that he is sparking the imagination of an artiste. Kate Klise's charming mystery novel is told entirely in letters and faxes, as the glamorous Florence visits Dry Creek and becomes friends with Mr. Sam N.'s fifth-grade class. The class helps Florence design the most outrageous water fountain ever, and along the way uncovers the dirty (and rather wet) secret that dwells underneath Dry Creek Middle School. Writes Florence to her new fifth-grade friends, "Your drawings are hanging in my studio. Pure inspiration. Of course a drinking fountain should have tropical fish and chocolate shakes!" The book reads like an inspired combination of the epistolary novels Daddy-Long-Legs and Griffin & Sabine. Line drawings by M. Sarah Klise adorn every page, with "snapshots" of the fifth-grade class, pages from the local paper, and coffee-stained While You Were Out notices thickening the stew. The emphasis on visual elements should make the book a hit with kids who claim they don't like to read. Author Klise knows her audience: bad puns flow as freely as water and the plot is just convoluted enough to challenge kids without frustrating them. The Klise sisters have created a classic of comic children's literature. (Ages 8 and older) --Claire Dederer

About the Author:

As a correspondent for People magazine, Kate Klise covered everything from celebrity scandals to serial killers. After writing several bestselling children's books, Kate decided to write In the Bag, her first novel for adults, when she found a note from a fellow passenger in her carry-on bag.

Kate Klise and illustrator M. Sarah Klise are sisters who have been writing each other letters for more than twenty years, culminating in 1998 with their fiction debut, Regarding the Fountain. When they're not writing letters, Kate who lives in Norwood, MO, is a correspondent for People; Sarah is an art teacher that lives in Berkeley, California.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0380793474
• ISBN 13: 9780380793471
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144
• Illustrator: Klise M. Sarah