Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 11/01/2013 When Mrs. Pidgeon’s second-grade class studies the human body, Gooney Bird arranges for her uncle to lend them Napoleon, the skeleton he uses as a professor teaching anatomy. Gooney Bird and her classmates find novel, amusing ways to involve the whole school in their learning experience, right up until Napoleon is stolen. His disappearance adds an unexpected element of mystery to the narrative, which conveys a certain amount of information along with a vibrant attitude toward learning, an appreciation for the children’s varied personalities, and a wry sense of humor. Pencil drawings illustrate this appealing chapter book from the Gooney Bird series. - Copyright 2013 Booklist.

School Library Journal - 01/01/2014 Gr 2–4—Gooney Bird and her second-grade classmates are studying the human body. The students are in for a surprise when her uncle, Dr. Walter Oglethorpe, an anatomy professor, loans them a skeleton to help them with their research. They use it as an opportunity to teach the whole school about the human body as they label where different parts would be, such as the brain, muscles, digestive system, etc. The skeleton, on display outside the school to show the location of the respiratory system, goes missing, and Gooney Bird becomes head detective, leading her class on an investigation to solve the mystery. The youngsters are enthusiastic, outgoing, and funny. The running joke throughout the story is, "Mrs. Pidgeon's second grade finds this humerus." Readers will discover important facts about anatomy as they follow along with this remarkable class. Line drawings bring to life the unique scenarios the students create for the skeleton. A great choice for beginning chapter-book readers.—Sarah Polace, Cuyahoga Public Library System, OH - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Bulletin for the Center... - 02/01/2014 It’s March in Mrs. Pidgeon’s second-grade classroom, which means it’s time to study the human body. Luckily, Gooney Bird Greene (from Gooney Bird and the Room Mother, BCCB 4/05, etc.) has arranged for her uncle to loan the class a real skeleton from the medical college where he teaches. Soon inspiration strikes, and she leads her classmates (and teacher) in posing the skeleton around the school so as to teach all the students about anatomy. When the skeleton disappears, the class must crack the case before Gooney Bird’s uncle finds out. Gooney Bird—perhaps the youngest in the tradition of temperamental red-haired freckle-faced heroines—amuses and inspires again in this latest installment of her series. As individualistic as ever, she displays her precociousness and fashion sense with a t-shirt reading “Humpty Dumpty was pushed” and a secondhand bracelet featuring the literal charms referred to in the title, and she combines both characteristics in her storytelling. By the time this entertaining chapter book ends, she has found a way to interweave the seemingly disparate charms with the story of the skeleton and all the class learned during his stay at the school, thus modeling for young readers how the pieces of a story come together and providing ample opportunity for reader prediction in both independent and readaloud encounters. With apt jokes, recognizable classroom curriculum, and comfortably familiar characters, not to mention sly jabs at censorship, Lowry’s Gooney Bird and her skeletal adventures will satisfy readers who appreciate a humerus tale. AA - Copyright 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Loading...