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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
Great story of summer-time adventure! Lived Owen and I think so many kids will be able to identify with him!
The cover was the most exciting thing about the book -- it was a pretty slow read. I liked it okay, though I disliked Owen for the first half of the book, and his two guy friends were pretty interchangeable. In fact, none of the characters was developed enough to care about them one way or the other.
Quick read about a young boy with a talent for getting himself into trouble. When he catches the biggest bullfrog in Graham Pond, he opens himself up for the adventure of a lifetime. This fun book will appeal to MG boys.
This has one of the best first lines ever: "Owen Jester tiptoed across the gleaming linoleum floor and slipped the frog into the soup." ("It's not hot", he reassured him.) And it just gets better from there.
Owen and his two buddies-in-trouble, Travis and Stumpy, are used to roaming freely in the woods and by the railroad tracks behind their houses, but when Owen's family moves in with his grandpa across town, he is now under the suspicious eye of the housekeeper, Earlene . To make matters worse, next door is Viola, a snoopy (lonely), bossy know-it-all with allergies. She keeps insisting that Tooley, Owen's recently-captured bullfrog, would rather be free. And when Owen hears a thump in the night, and tries to find whatever he is SURE fell off the passing freight train, Viola is determined to be involved. She is worse than a conscience!
This is full of classic, boyish stuff: self-serving logic, building things out of (other people's) junk, getting muddy and avoiding your adults. There's a mechanical dream-come-true and a bit of heart-string tugging over Owen's ailing grandpa and whether girls are worth some attention. I didn't love it as much as How to Steal a Dog, but it's right up there.
Owen and his two buddies-in-trouble, Travis and Stumpy, are used to roaming freely in the woods and by the railroad tracks behind their houses, but when Owen's family moves in with his grandpa across town, he is now under the suspicious eye of the housekeeper, Earlene . To make matters worse, next door is Viola, a snoopy (lonely), bossy know-it-all with allergies. She keeps insisting that Tooley, Owen's recently-captured bullfrog, would rather be free. And when Owen hears a thump in the night, and tries to find whatever he is SURE fell off the passing freight train, Viola is determined to be involved. She is worse than a conscience!
This is full of classic, boyish stuff: self-serving logic, building things out of (other people's) junk, getting muddy and avoiding your adults. There's a mechanical dream-come-true and a bit of heart-string tugging over Owen's ailing grandpa and whether girls are worth some attention. I didn't love it as much as How to Steal a Dog, but it's right up there.
I would probably give this 2.5 stars. This is a nice story about a kid who finds a submarine that falls off of a train. The book will not blow away an adult reader, but my students have enjoyed the book. There is a nice lesson about not catching animals from the wild and keeping them as pets.
I read this one out loud to my boys. They really enjoyed it!
I wish the boys in the story had been nicer to Viola, the "annoying" girl who actually saves the day. At least it became an opportunity to have some discussion on how boys should treat girls!
I wish the boys in the story had been nicer to Viola, the "annoying" girl who actually saves the day. At least it became an opportunity to have some discussion on how boys should treat girls!
Decent little book, decently describes the Georgia ecosystem......
Easy read. Owen finds a submarine; The story has adventure & friendship issues. Its biggest drawback is that it virtually ignores Owen’s living situation which is set up as difficult, to say the least. Had I not read the blurb on the jacket that told me his father had lost his job, forcing them to move in w/his grandfather and that ‘Earlene’ was his grandfather’s caretaker I would never have known from the actual content of the book. The characters of Earlene & grandfather are vague & confusing & Mom and Dad serve zero purpose in the book. I was disappointed in that I usually like Barbara O'Connor's work.
I think this book was a very good story, and it was a great book for teaching reading comprehension.
