Audrey Penn

My Opinion: This was such a sad yet poignant little book. For everyone who has ever been asked what being dead means from a child who has lost a friend or loved one, you know how hard it is to answer that question. I thought Audrey Penn did a phenomenal job with it. When Chester Raccoon's friend Skiddel Squirrel has an accident and his teacher tells the class he will not be returning ever again, he wants to know what happened and why. His mother tells him just like old Mr. Beaver, "His heart show more quit beating and his body didn't work any more." Chester now understands, and "his insides felt jumbled and he was very sad." I think that's a wonderful way to describe this feeling in language a child would understand.

When Chester is still upset, Mrs. Raccoon suggests that they make a memory of Skiddil Squirrel, "that way you'll never forget him." She explains what that means and they set out to go to one of Skiddil Squirrels favorite places to play, and along the way they pick up a whole slew of friends who want to make a memory of him as well.

As usual, Audrey Penn takes a very difficult subject down to a child's level, not telling too much or too little, and makes it easier to understand. Also as usual, Barbara Leonard Gibson's illustrations are spot on and adorable to boot.

I highly recommend this book to parents who are trying to help their little one understand and deal with death and give it a special 5 stars :D show less

I enjoyed reading this story for many reasons. First, this book allows the reader to get into the body of a student with ADHD by showing vibrant illustrations and descriptions of Jimmy Jumpingbean in class, while taking them on a simulation journey. In many of the illustrations, you can see that Jimmy is the only student not sitting still in class. The author even states “He started bouncing up and down as if he were going to pop!” In order to simulate what it feels like to have the urge show more to move constantly, Mr. Jugardor had each student place a ladybug in their shirt and then try to sit still. This then pushed the readers to broaden their opinions about students with ADHD. You can also see clear character development throughout the story. At first, Sandy Sitstill and Brittany Calm yelled at Jimmy for tapping his pencil on his desk. However, after the students placed ladybugs down their shirts and experienced what it was like to not be able to sit still, both Sandy and Brittany understood why Jimmy felt the need to move so much. The story is also told from a third person point of view, so as the reader, I was able view the story as if I was in the classroom watching the whole thing. The only downfalls in this story are the language and writing style. The author uses a lot of alliteration, which got me tongue tied when reading it aloud. By having names like Jimmy Jumpingbean, Principle Patience, or Simon Showoff, this tends to distract the reader from the story itself. I understand that the author was trying to be creative with the names, but it eventually became more of a nuisance. The writing in this book is a little too advanced and complicated for readers under second grade, so it would definitely need to be read to the class. The message of the story is to explain ADHD and how children cope with the disorder. By the end of the book, Jimmy’s classmates understood why he cannot sit still, and even said that ADD stands for “altogether dynamite dude”. show less

My Opinion: I received a copy of this book free of charge through NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I read this book for my grandson and I'll let his words be my review: "Again! Again!" He loved the fact that Chester Raccoon had to go to bed while "the rest of the world is waking up". He also thought the shadows were cool and "not scary at all because it's light out, silly!" I think he totally missed the subtext, haha, but he loved the book, so he and I both give the it 5 silly show more stars! I have to go now because he saw me typing this, saw the picture of the book above, and is requesting that I read it to him yet again :D show less

In my opinion, there are several reasons I liked this book, but only one reason I didn’t. I think that this book could be hard for children who come from foster care or single parent families where they may not receive the warm, kind, selfless love that is illustrated in this book, and that is the one reason this book gave me mixed feelings. However, I really liked how this story had an underlying purpose, which was to illustrate that sometimes in life we all have to do things we do not show more want to do, but we must in order to keep growing as individuals.
I really liked how descriptive the language is throughout this story. For example, when the mother raccoon kisses Chester’s hand so he may always feel her love and protection is with him, he says: “even my silky black mask tingled with warmth.” Penn’s description of Chester’s feelings allow for readers to visualize and authenticate those feelings. I also liked how the point of view was written in third person. As the story goes on, readers can relax and picture themselves in Chester’s shoes. Reading the story in third person also allows for the reader to adjust the characters so that the mother raccoon could easily become an uncle, or father figure, grandmother, aunt, or sister, which allows for you to reach a vast group of individuals. show less