The Wonder Book

by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (Author) Paul Schmid (Illustrator)

The Wonder Book
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Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade
cms Common Sense Media Review

From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of I Wish You More, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, "a joyous, totally original potpourri of stories, poems, lists, palindromes, visual jokes, and random observations about the universal delights and conundrums of childhood."*

Reminiscent of classics like Falling Up from Shel Silverstein, this 80-page black-and-white book is meant for sharing and taps into the delightfully inquisitive world of a child.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal said it best:

Hello, You!

So . . . this book is full of stuff I've always wondered about . . .

Like:

  • Did Miss Mary Mack have friends who liked other colors?
  • Could everything important about the world be summarized in a poem that rhymes?
  • How do moms always know when you're about to sneak a cookie?
  • Who hid something under the Tooth Fairy's pillow when she was a little girl?

Inside you will find stories, short poems, lists, palindromes, visual treats, and random observations. Some parts are happy, some sad-ish, some silly, some serious, some crunchy, some with a soft center.

You can open the book up anywhere and read. So the beginning could be the end, and the end could be the beginning. But I guess the middle is always the middle. . . .

P.S. Aren't Paul's drawings the best?!

--Amy Krouse Rosenthal

*School Library Journal

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Publishers Weekly

This waggish collection combines poems, wordplay, and black ink illustrations to Silversteinian effect. Familiar nursery rhymes are comically recast (This little piggy played the stock market), puns run rampant, a poem about a backwards prince is meant to be read backwards itself, and there are some winning palindromes (Was it Eliots toilet I saw?). An occasional gag falls flat (I wonder why people dont replace them when they take showers?), but the sheer diversity of silliness ensures that there is something (funny) for everyone. Ages 510. "(Mar.)" Copyright 2010 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

School Library Journal

K-Gr 3 Here is a joyous, totally original potpourri of stories, poems, lists, palindromes, visual jokes, and random observations about the universal delights and conundrums of childhood. Set squarely in the world of the 21st-century child, with references to tae kwon do, 50 TV channels, and chocolate-chip pancakes, these varied musings nonetheless speak to everyone's inner child, young or old, mentioning table manners, dinosaurs, bratty children, whining, the tooth fairy, and moms and dads who can't relate. Simple, evocative, and childlike black-and-white line drawings, in concert with judicious and varied use of white space, perfectly capture the happy/sad/serious/silly moods of the selections. A book that can be opened on any page, it includes a handy, tongue-in-cheek index of key words and images to guide readers to subjects of interest. Make room on the poetry shelf between Prelutsky and Silverstein: fans of such well-loved titles as "The New Kid on the Block" (1984) and "A Light in the Attic" (1981, both HarperCollins) will flock to this winning volume of sheer fun."Kathleen Finn, St. Francis Xavier School, Winooski, VT" Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Amy Krouse Rosenthal
AMY KROUSE ROSENTHAL is the author of lots of books for children (such as That's Me Loving You, On the Spot, and Uni the Unicorn, of course) and even some books for grown-ups (like Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life). You can find more about Amy online at whoisamy.com.

BRIGETTE BARRAGER (Uni the Unicorn) is an artist, designer, and illustrator and writer of children's books. She spent some time at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios before taking the plunge into freelance illustration, where she's lived happily ever after. She resides in Los Angeles with her handsome husband, cute doggy, and terrible cat. Visit Brigette at brigetteb.com.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9780061429743
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
HarperCollins
Publication date
February 09, 2010
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF028000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Humor | General
JNF042010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Poetry | Humorous
Library of Congress categories
-

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