Book Review: The Other Author Arthur

The Other Author Arthur, by Sheree Fitch

It might be because I love word play that I like this early reader so much. How brilliant is it to come up with this idea: an author named Arthur is about to visit an elementary school. The children are all excited.

The author, however, wished he could spend the day writing.

Meanwhile, a furnace repair man also named Arthur would love nothing better but to share stories with the students.

Everyone is happy when the two Arthurs are accidently switched, allowing one to tell stories and the other one to write in the furnace room!

 

This comedy of errors and mistaken identity brings a day of great stories for the children. Writing, telling our own stories, and the family feel of a small elementary school are themes beneath this farcical adventure. Grades 2-4. I hope, for your sake, that it is still in print.

A children's chapter book illustrated by Jill Quinn.

Pottersfield Press, now distributed by Nimbus

ISBN-10 1-895900-20-4

Author’s website: http://www.shereefitch.com/

Interviews with Canadian Authors and Illustrators

If you are a librarian, classroom teacher, or just any booklover, you might be int

erested in reading the interviews I conduct for each issue of Canadian Teacher Magazine.
The magazine is send to each school in the country but also has an online presence: http://www.canadianteachermagazine.com

Each month I interview a wide variety of writers and illustrators of different genres: scifi, a novelist, a poet, etc. I try to cover male and female, east, west, south, north and in between!

You can contact Canadian Teacher Magazine to receive a subscription in the mail, or check online for current issues.
My current column is available here: http://www.canadianteachermagazine.com/article_lt_canwrite_arthur_slade.html      and features author Arthur Slade.


Happy reading!

Book Review: Lydia, Queen of Palestine by Uri Orlev

Lydia, Queen of Palestine by Uri Orlev

Lydia, a typical but highly spirited child, must face her parents' divorce as well as the growing hostility toward Romania's Jewish population. Lydia's mother sends her to live in a kibbutz in Palestine during World War II, promising to follow her daughter soon.

Lydia finds it difficult to adjust to life in a kibbutz. When her mother fails to show up, she tries to find her father, who is already in Israel but remarried.

"Often outrageous and abrasive, yet also delightfully imaginative, bright, and tenacious, Lydia is the archetype of a survivor, while her experiences on the periphery of the war's horrors are authentic and fascinating."

School Library Journal says "This is an honest book peopled with convincing characters whose petty jealousies and concerns occupy them more than the larger events of the world in which they live. Lydia's experiences are often wryly humorous; she is both inventive and unpredictable, and never boring. This story offers a contrast to the spate of Holocaust books with harrowing escapes and heroic protagonists"

I found this a wonderful read that pulled me into the story, brought the character to live and opened my eyes to a whole new world.

Paperback, 176 pages
ISBN 0140370897 (ISBN13: 9780140370898)