Monday, March 26, 2007
Mr. Little
by Robert Newton Peck, author of the side-splitting Soup books.
This book treads territory familiar to any reader of Peck's Soup series. It is in a similarly rural setting, it also feels set in the 1930s or 1940s, and it features two boys pulling similar pranks, and getting into the same sorts of trouble with their parents and teachers. This time, however, these are different boys, and they have a new teacher. They are not thrilled, because he is replacing the sweet and pretty Miss Kellogg, and they try to pull some pranks on this new guy, hoping to see him crack. As it turns out, he's got a tougher shell than expected, and a trick or two of his own. By the end, the boys and the man have come to some respect and a bit of a friendship.
I quite liked this for putting a twist on the tale and making the teacher something other than the nemesis. It's also a short and fun book for a younger, less skilled, or more reluctant reader, with high boy appeal, though I loved these when I was a kid, too.
This book treads territory familiar to any reader of Peck's Soup series. It is in a similarly rural setting, it also feels set in the 1930s or 1940s, and it features two boys pulling similar pranks, and getting into the same sorts of trouble with their parents and teachers. This time, however, these are different boys, and they have a new teacher. They are not thrilled, because he is replacing the sweet and pretty Miss Kellogg, and they try to pull some pranks on this new guy, hoping to see him crack. As it turns out, he's got a tougher shell than expected, and a trick or two of his own. By the end, the boys and the man have come to some respect and a bit of a friendship.
I quite liked this for putting a twist on the tale and making the teacher something other than the nemesis. It's also a short and fun book for a younger, less skilled, or more reluctant reader, with high boy appeal, though I loved these when I was a kid, too.
Labels: early chapters, golden oldies, humour
# posted by kittenpie @ 10:29 AM 
