Double Dog Dare (Hobie Hanson) - Softcover

Gilson, Jamie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0688163610 ISBN 13: 9780688163617

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1998

Synopsis

"I dare you." It starts with a dare to toss a black rubber spider at an unsuspecting friend. Just because that gag goes wrong is no reason for Hobie not to accept the ultimate challenge: the Double Dog Dare! How average Hobie finds his own way to shine makes for a story that will delight his fans, old and new -- and leave them doubled over with laughter.

About this title

About the Author

Jamie Gilson has written sixteen books, all of them about children, most of them about children in school. And the elementary school where she gets many of her ideas is Central, which all three Gilson children attended. While Tom and Anne are now lawyers and Matthew a photographer, their mother still goes to Central School classes, notebook in hand, looking for stories.

She describes Central's cafeteria in Do Bananas Chew Gum?, its Spit Pit in Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub, and the contents of some of its fourth grade desks in Hobie Hanson, You're Weird. Central students have taught her how to sing "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells," how to chew a mint so it sparks in the dark, and how to play soccer on a field of mud.

She spent two weeks with the whole fifth grade class while, in a kind of total immersion, they studied the Western Movement. On the first day the boys and girls found out who they'd be married to for those two weeks. Then they took pioneer identities, joined a wagon train, chose supplies, decided whether to cross a rushing river at midnight, made pumpkin butter, dipped candles, and built mock fires with fake buffalo chips. They had a wonderful time--mostly. Jamie wrote a book about it: Wagon Train 911.

"It's true, though," she says, "that while Central is very special to me, every school is brimming with rich stories. I talk with children all over the country about my writing, and the one question they always ask is, 'Witt you put us in a book?' If I were there tong enough, I expect I could."

Jamie Gilson's professional life has always involved writing and communications. Formerly a teacher of junior high school speech and English, she was a staff writer and producer for Chicago Board of Education radio station WBEZ, a writer of Encyclopaedia Brittanica films, and continuity director for fine arts radio station WFMT. She was, for ten years, a monthly columnist for Chicago magazine.

Born in Beardstown, Illinois, Jamie Gilson spent her early years in small towns in Illinois and Missouri where her father worked as a flour miller. After graduating from Northwestern University School of Speech, she married Jerome Gilson, then a law student and now a trademark lawyer. They live within sight and sound of Lake Michigan in a suburb of Chicago.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6 Gilson pitches another sure-hit book with this sequel to Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub (1982) and 4B Goes Wild (1983, both Lothrop) . Hobie Hanson and his classmates are back, starting fifth grade in Miss Ivanovitch's room. The humorous pranks are not as plentiful as in the previous books, but Hobie's comic personality and tricks make this pure enjoyment. The Illinois school scene is not as well described as the class ice-skating party, but several themes are well handled: jealousy, the pre-teen contest scene, burgeoning boy-girl relationships, standing up to peer-pressure, and individual talents and abilities. This title is one of the first to handle learning disabilities with dignity. Gilson treats each child with respect as an individual, so the book is loaded with personality. Susannah Price, Boise Public Library, Idaho
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0688163610
• ISBN 13: 9780688163617
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144