Middle Grade Monday: The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman

Image: Hachette Book Group

The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman. Unabridged audiobook, ~6 hours. Read by Marisa Calin. Hachette Audio/ Little, Brown Young Readers, February, 2025. 9781668647448.

Clare, the undead fox of Deadwood Forest, is rather relieved to be undead. He's a silver-tailed fox who was run over as a kit and was convinced that his afterlife would be spent in the realm of Pain. Instead, he became an usher, one who welcomes the newly dead to Deadwood Forest and prepares them to enter one of four realms, Peace, Pleasure, Progress or Pain. Excepting for the yearly taunting by children each Halloween about how he's a monster who feasts on bones, his life is orderly and predictable. He enjoys helping souls move on and loves tending to his mushroom garden.

Things become a bit unsettled though, when a badger named Gingersnipes appears. Clare hates badgers, but this one doesn't seem so bad. She has way too many questions for Clare's liking, and he tries to show her the way quickly. Unfortunately, Gingersnipes knocks on Clare's door again, apparently unable to pass on. With great foreboding Clare attempts again, and again, and again. What does this mean?

This was an absolutely immersive audiobook! Ms. Calin's smooth narration and unique voices added dimension to this layered, lovely and magical story. The world building was deeply engaging. There was humor, suspense, sadness, heartbreak and hope. It's a story that can be read on many levels and should have broad appeal. 

As I listened, it occurred to me to check out the print book. Something told me it was illustrated. It was, and they were a lovely addition! 

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: All Ears by Stuart Gibbs

Image: Simon & Schuster

All Ears by Stuart Gibbs. FunJungle #9. Unabridged e-audio, ~8 hours. Read by Gibson Frazier. Simon & Schuster Audio, May, 2025. 9781668134696. Review of audiobook borrowed from pubic library.

Middle Grade Monday features All Ears by Stuart Gibbs. This ninth installment does not disappoint. Teddy Fitzroy and his father have been called to investigate an elephant that went missing from a nearby ranch. While there, Teddy receives a call from his best friend, Xavier, who was arrested for trespassing and vandalism on a construction site. His loyalty is divided. His best friend is understandably upset and wants him to come immediately, but he needs to look for clues while they are still fresh. This causes some friction between the two.

As usual, Gibbs weaves a environmental themes (habitat loss, big-game hunting) in with plenty of suspense as well as humor. These plot-driven mysteries remain fresh and fun. 

I had forgotten my promise not to read these with my ears. The narrator is serviceable, but this first-person narrative is told by a teenager, and the voice in my ears is clearly adult.

Picture Book FNG Review: That's Not Funny, David! by David Shannon

Image: Scholastic Inc.

That's Not Funny, David! by David Shannon. 32 p. Orchard Books/ Scholastic Inc., March 4, 2025. 9781546123187. Review of fng courtesy of publisher.

It's hard to believe that it will be 27 years this September, since boisterous, rambunctious little David burst on the scene in all his triangular-toothed glory. Has he grown either physically or emotionally? No. Is he still a perpetual motion machine? Yes. As the author/ illustrator notes in his introduction, humor is subjective. David definitely goes for low-brow and provocative. His antics will delight his fans.

#tbt: Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar

Image: Penguin Random House

Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar. 279 p. Dutton Children's Books/ Penguin Young Readers, July, 2005. 

#tbt features a favorite book of mine, Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar. Scott Hudson is entering high school. He thinks his bffs will be in his classes and help with the transition. Unfortunately, Scott is in honors classes, and his friends are not.  He's small. He's bullied. He's also suffering because of his older brother's less than stellar reputation. Then, there's Julia, an acquaintance from kindergarten, who has morphed into a goddess, so Scott joins everything that Julia joins with hilarious results. Scott thinks things can't get much worse until his mother announces that she is pregnant and Scott decides to write a user's manual - not a diary - to help his future sibling navigate freshmen year. 

I wasn't blogging in 2005, when I read it, but I have book talked this book whenever I had the opportunity, especially to eighth graders getting ready for high school. There is a companion novel, Sophomores and Other Oxymorons, which was published in 2015. 

This is the original cover, which I prefer. Happy reading!

#tbt: A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy. Illustrated by Todd Harris. 468 p. Walden Pond Press/ HarperCollins Publishers, May, 2012. 9780062117434. (Own)

#tbt features A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy and illustrated by Todd Harris. The four princes Charming are not quite living happily ever after, and neither are their respective princesses, Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel and Sleeping Beauty can take care of themselves, thank you very much. 

This inventive fractured fairy tale is fast-paced and often laugh out loud funny. It was published in 2012 and is Mr. Healy's debut novel. It is the first book of a trilogy. 

Middle Grade Monday: Diper Överlöde (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #17) by Jeff Kinney

Image: Abrams Books

Diper Överlöde (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #17) by Jeff Kinney. 224 p. Amulet Books/ Abrams Books, October, 2022. 9781419762949. (Review of finished purchased copy.)

Happy Monday! Middle Grade Monday features Diper Överlöde (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #17) by Jeff Kinney. Roderick wants to make his band, Diper Överlöde big and he thinks that by winning the upcoming Battle of the Bands will do it as it also launched the career of his favorite band. Greg isn't all that interested in being Roderick's roadie, but on the off-chance he does become famous, Greg wants in. Fans of the series will not be disappointed. There's a wait list for it. 

Teen Tuesday: The First Thing About You by Chaz Hayden

Image: Candlewick Press

The First Thing About You by Chaz Hayden. 368 p. Candlewick Press, September, 2022. 9781536223115. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

The Daily Book Talk/ Take Two: Happy Tuesday! Argh! I was in the middle of writing my Teen Tuesday post early this morning and accidentally closed the page in my school's learning platform, which doesn't have an autosave feature!

Teen Tuesday features a hilarious and heartwarming debut, The First Thing About You by Chaz Hayden. Fifteen-year-old Harris has moved from California to New Jersey because his father got a better job. He's hoping to use this opportunity to start living "a real teenage life," which includes finding a girlfriend. However, Harris has Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which means he's wheelchair bound and totally reliant on others for eating, bathing and doing school work. It's kind of hard to get people to look past the "kid in the wheelchair" to see Harris for who he is. He also has a theory about colors. His go-to conversation starter is, "What's your favorite color?" The answer gives Harris an idea about possible compatibility. The first person to reach out to him is Zander, whose favorite color is yellow. Yellow and blue mix well. When he's paired with Nory in Physics class, she assumes that he's not smart because of the wheel chair. Additionally, she won't tell him her favorite color. He's disappointed because she's smart and pretty.

While he and his mother interview nurses to hire, she attends school with him, trying to keep the fact that she's his mom on the down-low. She's actually pretty cool and Harris appreciates the fact that she shoulders most of the burden for his care and is a fierce advocate for him with the school. He has an IEP and the school is not prepared to accommodate him. After the first nurse that was hired failed epically (and hilariously), Harris' mom reluctantly hires Miranda, a nursing student. She is a former student of the high school and has a reputation for making bad choices. Still, she works well with Harris and he's happy.

Teen readers will be immediately captivated by Harris' wry narration. The author also has SMA and explores themes of friendship and belonging authentically. Harris is a memorable character, bright, irreverent and introspective and The First Thing About You is a smashing debut. I'm looking forward to reading more from Mr. Hayden.

I always look up the availability of my daily book talks in our library cooperative for my students. This morning, I discovered that The First Thing About You is available as an e-audiobook! I'm eager to reread this with my ears! Happy reading!

Middle Grade Monday: Fenris and Mott by Greg Van Eekhout

Image: HarperCollins Publishers 

Fenris and Mott by Greg Van Eekhout. 202 p. Harper/ HarperCollins Publishers, August 2, 2022. 9780062970633. (Review of finished copy courtesy of Blue Slip Media.)

Middle Grade Monday features Fenris and Mott by Greg Van Eekhout. All twelve-year-old Mott (short for Martha) wants to do is successfully film an episode of the "Mott and Amanda Root Beer Show . That's proving difficult thanks to her BFF Amanda being on vacation in Germany and, oh, she and her mom have relocated to Culver City, California. The only quiet place she can find is an alley, but it's just not the same without Amanda. 

When Mott hears scuttling and scratching in a nearby dumpster, she assumes it's a rat, but it's a fluffly, white ball of fur. She makes a promise to help the pup and brings him to a nearby animal shelter where she learns that he isn't a dog. He's a wolf-pup, so she couldn't keep him even if her landlord allowed dogs. No worries, the animal shelter will contact a wolf sanctuary and hold the pup until they arrive. However, he is not having that and bolts once he sees the leash he's about to be tethered to! He crashes through a plate glass window and disappears.

Mott finds him a few blocks later. Unfortunately, the pup is wriggling in the hands of a giant who claims he's Gorm the Viscious and Fenris, the pup, is prophesied to eat the moon, slay Odin and end the world. Say what?

A promise is a promise and Mott promised to keep Fenris safe. How can she do that and also save the world from ending? 

If you love a fast-paced adventure with lots of humor, this is the book for you. Though plot-driven and quite cinematic, the characters hum with life. Mott is achingly endearing and Thrudie, the Valkyrie is the perfect sidekick. Then, of course, there's Fenris, the puff ball of destruction doing what puppies do best. I swallowed this in one big giddy gulp. Happy reading!

Fact Friday: The Boy Who Failed Dodgeball by Jordan Sonnenblick

Image: Scholastic Inc.

The Boy Who Failed Dodgeball by Jordan Sonnenblick. 246 p. Scholastic Press/ Scholastic Inc., June, 2022. 9781338749601. (Review of finished copy borrowed from public library.)

Fact Friday features The Boy Who Failed Dodgeball by Jordan Sonnenblick. Young Jordan Sonnenblick is entering middle school on Staten Island. He's attending I.S. 61, which is an arts magnet school, and he's pumped to be placed in morning band class. It's the class that performs and those students get to wear the red blazers. He's not pumped about acing all the math tests for a city-wide math competition and he refuses to join math club. Oh! And he gets off on the wrong foot with his L.A. teacher and is sent to the vice-principal's office on the first day of school!

Middle grade readers are treated to the highs and lows of Jordan's sixth grade year. Even though it takes place in the 1980s and modern tweens might not know who Evel Knievel was, they will relate to the anxiety of making new friends (and enemies), keeping old friends, having crushes and going on dates.

Amusing spot art is sprinkled throughout this episodic memoir, which is often laugh-out-loud funny. Fans of the author's books will enjoy reading this and super-fans may recognize a name or two. It sure was fun revisiting young Jordan. I hope there will be more from the boy who failed.

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi

Image: Penguin Random House

Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~7 hours. Read by Mitra Jouhari. Listening Library/ Penguin Random House Audio, May, 2021. 9780593411483. (Review of e-audio downloaded from public library.)

Teen Tuesday features Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi. This breezy first-person narrative features fourteen-year-old Parvin (pronounced Par-VEEN, not Par-vin) Mohammedi, who is starting high school thinking she will rock it and is crushed when her new boyfriend dumps her at orientation because she's "too much." What does that even mean? Luckily, she has two bffs to turn to for comfort and she video chats with her college-aged aunt in Tehran, Iran regularly and her parents are supportive even if they do work long hours and don't cook much. When she spies her ex holding hands with another girl, she blurts out that she has a date for homecoming. Now all she needs to do is tone herself down and emulate all the white girls in her favorite rom-coms-be quiet and demure, not hairy and no snort-laughing. oh, yeah, and snag a date for homecoming so she can save face.

Her friends Fabian and Ruth and her aunt all tell her not to change herself-that she should be liked for who she is, but Parvin is wrestling with being bi-racial. She looks nothing like her blond, blue-eyed mother and doesn't feel Iranian enough, especially in Farsi school, where she struggles to learn the language.

Parvin is perfectly entertaining as she blunders her way through a variety of cringeworthy, yet relatable situations. Layered inside the humor are her deft observations of Islamophobia, micro-aggressions and outright racism as well as the shifting sands of high school hierarchy.

Perfectly Parvin is the author's debut and a series starter, so if you like rom-coms and irrepressible characters, you're in for a treat here. I read this one with my ears and appreciated the fluency of the narrator when pronouncing Farsi. Happy reading!

#tbt: Spy School by Stuart Gibbs

Image: Simon & Schuster

Spy School by Stuart Gibbs. 304 p. March, 2012. 9781442421820. (Own.)

#tbt features Spy School by Stuart Gibbs. Regular readers of The Daily Booktalk will feel like it's "deja-vu all over again" this morning as the graphic novel adaptation of Spy School, featured on Monday, uses the same iconic cover. It was ten years ago on March 6, that Ben Ripley burst on the scene as our favorite hapless spy-in-training, and yesterday, I featured the tenth, or X, installment, which is due out in early September. 

Stuart Gibbs is very popular at my school, and for good reason. His books are fast-paced, engaging and quite funny. While all his books circulate briskly, his Spy School series is generally checked out for the entire school year. I start the year with a full shelf, and very quickly it looks like this:

Until all the books are returned at the end of the school year.

Hear's to ten more years of Spy School!

Middle Grade Monday: Spy School: the Graphic Novel by Stuart Gibbs

Image: Simon & Schuster

Spy School: the Graphic Novel by Stuart Gibbs and illustrated by Anjan Sarker. Spy School GN #1. 296 p. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, February, 2022. 97811534455429. (Review of finished purchased copy.)

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! Middle Grade Monday features Spy School: the Graphic Novel by Stuart Gibbs and illustrated by Anjan Sarker. The first book in the wildly popular, long running Spy School series has been adapted to the graphic novel format! Avid gamer Ben finds himself recruited for CIA training in a secret school. It's a dream come true for Ben. He may be a math genius, but cool under pressure, he is not. An attempt on his life is made and there's a mole in the school. The adults are inept, so it's up to Ben and Erica, the smartest, coolest, most beautiful girl in the school to investigate.

The fast-paced action translates well into the graphic novel format. The palette zings with energy and visual humor. Fans of the series will gobble this one up. Fans of graphic novels will as well and might just try out the series. More please!

Picture Book Review: Interrupting Chicken: Cookies for Breakfast by David Ezra Stein

Image: Candlewick Press

Interrupting Chicken: Cookies for Breakfast by David Ezra Stein. unpgd. Candlewick Press, November, 2021. 9781536207781. (Review of finished copy courtesy of publisher.)

Chicken is back, up way too early on a Saturday morning and hungry for cookies for breakfast. Papa just wants to sleep in, but perks up when Chicken announces that she has brought him breakfast in bed! It's cookies. Cookies are not breakfast food!

Denied her wish, Chicken presses for her second wish, to snuggle in Papa's bed and be read a book. Can our irrepressible, interrupting Chicken manage not to interrupt Papa's reading?

   "Papa be nimble, Papa be quick, Papa read to your little chick."

    "That's what I'm planning to do," said Papa.    

    "Well, don't let me stop you," said the little red chicken.

As fans of Interrupting Chicken and Interrupting Chicken: the Elephant of Surprise know, story time with Chicken can be...challenging. True to form, Chicken interrupts every other fairy tale to suggest cookies. So. Much. Fun!

The illustrations continue to delight and surprise. Scenes in Papa and Chicken's cozy house are textured and filled with warm colors and sweet details, like a stuffed elephant on the floor of the kitchen. Scenes from the book of nursery rhymes are washed out pastel hues, except where Chicken bursts on the scene with her edited rhymes. 

Interrupting Chicken: Cookies for Breakfast is a must-purchase for all libraries serving young readers. Sure to be a story time hit.

Middle Grade Monday and Audio Review: Unplugged by Gordon Korman

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

Unplugged by Gordon Korman. Unabridged e-audiobook. ~6.5 hours. Read by a cast of six. HarperAudio/ HarperCollins Publishers, January, 2021. 9780063058095. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Happy Monday! I hope your weekend was fantastic. Mine was quite nice. The week promises to be rainy, so I'm glad I had a lot of outdoors time. Middle Grade Monday features Unplugged by Gordon Korman. Jett Baranov is an unabashed bad boy. His dad is founder and CEO of a huge tech company and has the money to bail Jett out of whatever trouble he gets into, so Jett kept upping the ante until his dad put his foot down. The family's private jet dumps Jett and his bodyguard/ babysitter in rural Arkansas to spend the summer at a place called the Oasis. It's in the middle of nowhere, the menu is totally vegetarian, the activities include meditation and, worst of all, Jett has to turn over all electronics. Jett sets about doing what Jett does best.

Mr. Korman has lots of fans at my school and deservedly so. His books are often quite funny and fast-paced. This one's pretty outlandish, but tons of fun.

The multiple narrators set a brisk pace and each was well-suited to their character. 

Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: Bear Bottom by Stuart Gibbs

Image: Simon & Schuster

Bear Bottom by Stuart Gibbs. FunJungle #7. Unabridged e-audiobook, ~7 hours, 12 minutes. Read by Gibson Frazier. Simon & Schuster Audio, May, 2021. 9781797123608. (Review of e-audio borrowed from public library.)

Happy Monday readers! I apologize for skipping Fact Friday last week. I read an amazing informational book that I can't wait to share, but just couldn't settle down to write the review it deserved. The events of the last eight-plus weeks have been a challenge to my concentration. 

Middle Grade Monday features Bear Bottom by TMS favorite, Stuart Gibbs. Theodore Roosevelt Fitzroy is back in the seventh installment of the FunJungle series. Teddy, his parents and some FunJungle employees traveled to Yellowstone with JJ McCracken and his family. They are staying at a bison ranch just outside Yellowstone National Park. JJ is friends with the owner and is thinking about buying the place. Several bison have gone missing recently, and JJ asks Teddy if he'd put his detective skills to work in order to get to the bottom of the mystery. 

As soon as Teddy starts, his investigation becomes a double investigation after Sasquatch, an enormous grizzly bear invades the ranch house and a rare and valuable necklace goes missing. Did the bear inadvertently eat the necklace while foraging for food? If so, someone needs to track Sasquatch and wait for nature to take its course.

Any new book by Stuart Gibbs is an auto-purchase for me. I don't even need to read them in order to book talk them. All I need to do is tell my students that there's a new Gibbs book in the library and it's checked out immediately with a wait list for the year. This is the reason why I didn't get to read Spy School for ages and ages. Mr. Gibbs always keeps his plots moving in unexpected, often hilarious ways. Woven into all the lighthearted fun are messages, usually about the environment.

This is the first FunJungle book that I read with my ears and I think I will read future installments with my eyes. The narrator was adequate, but didn't sound appropriately youthful to me and his female voices grated, especially Candace McCracken's. 

Picture Book Review: Chicken Little and the Big Bad Wolf by Sam Wedelich

Image: Scholastic Inc.

Chicken Little and the Big Bad Wolf by Sam Wedelich. unpaged. Scholastic Press/ Scholastic Inc., March, 2021. 9781338359008. (Review of finished copy courtesy of publisher.)

Chicken Little is back and she is absolutely not afraid of any big bad wolf. Sporting her signature red specs and red cowboy boots, this little gem of a story begins on the title page with Chicken Little stating, "I am so NOT scared of any wolf!"

On the next spread, she reiterates that she is not afraid. Then, wham! She collides with none other than the Big Bad Wolf, who wants to know if she's okay. She's not and runs away in a panic, then tells another chicken that she thinks she just saw the Big Bad Wolf. That chicken runs to tell the rest of the flock, who break into factions - Team Flight and Team Fight. Meanwhile, Chicken Little is second-guessing her reaction.

This is a read aloud that begs you to get your ham out. It's told mostly in dialogue and it's very punny, making it a great book to adapt into a Reader's Theater. Line drawings convey emotion, energy and lots of sight gags. The lesson is delivered effectively with lots of fun. 

I often tell my students not to skip the title page and end pages and this is a good example why not. The story starts on the title page and ends on the copyright/ publisher info page. The end pages are simply adorable. 

Welcome back Chicken Little! Hope to see you again soon!

Teen Tuesday and Audiobook Review: Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

Image: Macmillan Publishers

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord.  Unabridged digital audiobook. ~ 10 hours. Read by Dan Bittner and Emily Shaffer. Macmillan Young Listeners, 2020. 9781250262752. (Review of downloadable e-audiobook borrowed from public library)

Teen Tuesday feature Tweet Cute by Emma Lord. Fans of romance will just eat up this updated twist on You've Got Mail. 
Seventeen-year-old Pepper was unwillingly transplanted to New York City from Nashville four years earlier when her mom's burger joint, Big League Burger hit the big time. Even though the franchise has someone to manage their social media, it's Pepper that they and her mom turn to. She's a genius at managing - the great grades, the swim team, almost anything but navigating the streets of New York and friendship.

Jack lives in the shadow of his identical twin brother, Ethan. Jack can't understand Ethan's gravitational pull. He's also resentful of having to constantly cover for his twin working the family business - a small East Village deli called Girl Cheesing. When Big League Burger announces a new menu item on Twitter that looks like it has been stolen from Girl Cheesing, Jack fires off a tweet. And then, it's war.

The two classmates don't realize at first that they are behind the tweets that launched the war. They also don't realize that they've gotten close corresponding on an app that Jack developed called Weazel, where classmates get to connect anonymously before the app reveals their identities.

While there's a lot a angsty fun, this is not a totally breezey romance. Debut author, Ms. Lord does a deep-dive into the myriad of issues the use and mis-use of social media have spawned. The novel is also peopled with interesting characters and an energetic New York vibe. It's a story that keeps the reader guessing to its inevitable romantic end. Warning though: don't read while hungry. I've been on a grilled cheese kick since reading this.

Tweet Cute was such so refreshing and delightful. I'm eager to read more from Ms. Lord. 

The audiobook performances were well-paced. Both narrators sounded appropriately young and engaging. 

Middle Grade Monday: Dog Man: Grime and Punishment by Dav Pilkey

Image: Scholastic Inc.

Dog Man: Grime and Punishment by Dav Pilkey. Dog Man series #9. 240 p. Graphix/ Scholastic Inc., September, 2020. 9781338535624. (Review of finished copy courtesy of publisher.)

Happy Monday! I got the cleaning bug yesterday and spent much of it going through the drawers in my bathroom vanity. I threw so much crap out! Oh the things one collects over the years! The laundry room is next. I also took Boo for a three-mile walk and let him loose to run in the woods. How's your break going?

Middle Grade Monday features Dog Man: Grime and Punishment by Dav Pilkey. Book #9 of this series is still fresh, wacky, punny and funny. Dog Man has earned the ire of the mayor, who forces the Chief to fire him. Dog Man goes into such a funk without his badge that his friends concoct a plan for him to fight crime. That backfires and the mayor jails Dog Man and the entire police force leaving Grampa to continue his crime spree as the Crazed Crud! Oh no!

This series is wildly popular in my library as well as in my public library cooperative. It owns 274 copies of this installment with only 62 available! For good reason - they are accessible, hilarious and colorful. I have multiple copies of most of the books in this series in my school library and you should too! 

Keep 'em coming Mr. Pilkey!

Picture Book Review: Veg Patch Party by Clare Foges & Al Murphy

Image: Faber & Faber

Veg Patch Party by Clare Foges & Al Murphy. unpgd. Faber & Faber, October 20, 2020. 9780571352852. (Review courtesy of publisher.)

Heads up if you have a child who won't eat his or her veggies, or will eat them, or just wants to hear a rollicking read aloud. This jaunty story in rhyme invites the reader to a private party once the farmer and the animals hit the hay. That's when the veggies come out to play. 

The bright palette zings, the hand-lettering, cross-outs included, jump from the page and the puns and visual humor add to the enjoyment. A catchy, easy-to-learn refrain invites listeners to raucously join in the fun. Veg Patch Party is sure to be a hit among the pre-school group and one adults will have a load of fun reading out loud. 

Picture Book Review: Wombat Goes to School by Jackie French

Image: HarperCollins

Wombat Goes to School by Jackie French. Illustrated by Bruce Whatley. unpgd. Angus & Robertson/ HarperCollins Publishers, June, 2020. 9780732299033. (Review of finished paperback courtesy of publisher.)

As a HUGE fan of Diary of a Wombat, I was more than thrilled when given the opportunity to revisit Jackie French's rascally wombat. I loved of the sequel of sorts, Christmas Wombat and her nonfiction book, How to Scratch a Wombat. I knew next to nothing about these brown, round, lazy creatures. Wombat Goes to School continues the dry, deadpan humor and spare text of its predecessors. She eats. She sleeps. She scratches. What's this? She finds a hole! She smells carrots! She follows her nose and ends up in school where she hilariously wreaks havoc and ends up in the principal's office.

Fans of the Wombat books will not be disappointed. New fans can start here and work back through the earlier books. It seems that How to Scratch a Wombat has gone out of print. Too bad, since it was the perfect fiction/ nonfiction pairing for curious minds. I also learned that there are two additional titles in the pipeline - Wombat Wins, releasing in September and Grandma Wombat, set to release in January.

Bruce Whatley's acrylic illustrations convey wombat adorable-ness with understated humor and luscious colors. Mothball is the perfect distraction at school in her single-minded quest for carrots! I now have a granddaughter and may just have to put together a Wombat collection for her home library! Wombat Goes to School is the perfect addition to the read aloud rotation. I just loved it.