Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tashis


It was lights out this afternoon at Highland. The power suddenly went out and stayed out until there were just five minutes left of the school day.

Thank goodness the library has some windows and emergency lights. We were still able to host classes for reading, although the two classes signed up to use the computer lab were out of luck.

After working for a while on non-computerized things, I decided to take advantage of the time and read along with the students in the library. I picked up a book from next year's Caudill list, Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree. It was such a cute, touching story. I really liked it, and it was a super quick read. Emma-Jean is a quirky protagonist who finds it a great complement to be called strange after she looks up the definition in the dictionary. She is the kind of kid who stands apart and likes to observe. However, she decides to try to help a couple people out with problems which leads her into problems of her own. Her brand of help, although clever, usually involves some level of forgery. I really liked Emma-Jean. I think this will prove a popular Caudill book, particularly with the sixth graders.

Works Cited
"Emma Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree Cover." Online image. LibraryThin
g. 25 Feb, 2009 http://www.librarything.com/work/1826591