Overview / 简介: |
Illustrated in black-and-white. Tooter was your average suburban kid, until
her parents made her move to Aunt Sally's farm. It's not just that the
pizzeria won't deliver--the vegetables on her plate were grown in a pile of
compost, and everything smells like goat poop! But spunky Tooter has big plans
for getting even--sabotage!
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From Organization / 国外机构评价: |
| Gr. 3^-5. On the day her family moves to Aunt Sally's farm, Tooter handcuffs herself to the bathroom sink. How will she exist without fast food and pizza delivery? She thinks farm life stinks, literally and figuratively. Sabotage is her style, and she doesn't change her attitude until she's given an egg to incubate. Not surprisingly, the chick hatches and Tooter comes to love the farm, but along the way, there are enough farm jokes and silly scenes (Tooter steps in goat poop) to keep readers turning the pages. It's a bit like Ramona meeting Ma and Pa Kettle. |
Foreign Customer Review / 国外客户评价: |
| When I started to read this book, I thought Tooter Pepperday was going to be another great character in the tradition of Ramona, Junie, and Clementine, all of whom I've grown to love reading about. But what draws readers to these characters is that they have redeeming qualities, and despite their foibles, they are likeable and have good hearts. They're what we would call "sympathetic characters."
I really did not find Tooter Pepperday to be a very sympathetic character and did not connect well with her. Tooter is very negative throughout most of the book, which the reader could kind of understand, with her having to leave everything she loves about her home in the city to move with her family to the country and live on her aunt's farm. However, Spinelli fails to make us empathize with her frustrations, just portraying her as angry, manipulative, and rude. Examples - handcuffing herself to the plumbing to keep from moving, telling her parents "You're going to regret this" after they remove her, giving her parents the silent treatment, insulting her aunt's farm, yelling that her brother is a brat, talking back to her parents, running away until intercepted by a neighbor, and hiding under her bed until her parents are frantic about their missing daughter. The parents don't seem very skilled at dealing with her either (very little authority), with her father readily admitting how much the silent treatment bothers him. Even in the illustrations, Tooter is scowling in almost every one
With Ramona, Junie, and Clementine, we are exposed to their inner conflict, seeing that their "misbehavior" is often caused by their frustration, fear, or misunderstanding of a situation. They're likeable characters who care about those around them and generally try to be respectful to others. Spinelli fails to show this with Tooter, and therefore the book largely fails. Late in the book, Spinelli tries to redeem Tooter's character somewhat, but by then it's pretty much too late - we haven't grown to like and care about her. I will include this book in my classroom library and I will read the sequel (which I also own), but I would not purchase more copies of it or recommend it to others. While I would not want my students to emulate Tooter, the book could be a good springboard to discussion about her behavior and about author's craft. This was a disappointment from renowned author, Jerry Spinelli.
This Stepping Stone book has 85 pages of fairly large print, with 19 of the pages having half- to full-page illustrations (some double-page spreads). The publisher listing of reading level on the back is RL 2.0
I would rate this book a 5 on a 1-10 scale (2 1/2 stars). |
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