June 29, 1999

Story: Holly Evans launches several plants into the sky as a science project. Then, on June 29, 1999, giant vegetables begin to fall from the sky. Holly is delighted with the outcome of her experiment, and follows the news developments obsessively. But then vegetables start appearing that weren't in her experiment. So where did they come from?

Picture: As always David Wiesner creates stunning pictures for an amazingly intriguing story. I really enjoyed everything about this book. He is probably my favorite author/illustrator of children's books.

Thoughts: The story was very creative and the ending is equally surprising and humorous and entertaining. I smiled the whole way through this book. It is one of my favorite picture books.

Sector 7

Another picture book, from award-winner David Wiesner. This book was lent to me by the same friend who lent me Flotsam. I like Flotsam a lot more, but this one is great as well. At first I thought it was going to be the cheesiest thing I ever read (well, kind of) in my life, but it was such an enjoyable book.

Summary: A young boy goes on a school trip to the top of a very high building to look through binoculars. But it's really cloudy that day and the boy ends up making friends with a cloud. When the wind comes to take the could away, the boy goes with him to Sector 7, where clouds get their assignments. There the boy helps the clouds transform themselves into all sorts of crazy shapes (like fish). The people in charge at Sector 7 aren't happy about this and send the boy home on a much older cloud. He is very sad when he discovers his friend the cloud back on the roof. This time the cloud escorts the boy to his world.

Other: This book is terribly fun. I wish I had a cloud for a friend.

Favorite parts:
1. The boy turns all the clouds into amazing shapes.
2. The boy tries to hide the cloud under his coat and looks very suspicious when he starts floating.
3. At the very end all the wonderfully shaped clouds come and amaze the city.

Flotsam

A friend had this in her room and I picked it up to look at it. She said it was great, but I had my doubts. I have a hard time loving books for this age group. But I was so impressed with this book. It is one of my favorite all time books I think. The summary will give away the whole book, just so that you are aware.

Summary: A boy is at the beach with this family, collecting things that wash up and examining them under his microscope. He finds normal things like crabs and starfish and shells, but then he finds an underwater camera. Getting the pictures developed he sees the most amazing things from under the ocean. But the last picture is special. It is a picture of a kid holding a picture of a kid holding a picture of a kid... etc. When he uses his telescope he discovers that the pictures go all the way back about fifty or sixty years. Not to break the chain he puts new film in the camera and lobs it out to sea, but not after adding his picture holding the special picture of all the children who have discovered the joys of the ocean.

Other: This is a picture book. There are absolutely no words in it, but it is a better told story than half the books out there for this age group.

Favorite parts:
1. All of the pages that were pictures from under the ocean were amazing.
2. The pages that showed the chain of children who have found the underwater camera were great.