A Fine, Fine School

by Sharon Creech, Harry Bliss (Illustrator)

Overview

This funny picture book from Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech, author of Walk Two Moons, and New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss is a delight for kids, with its colorful illustrations and gentle comeuppance for a well-meaning principal who learns that learning outside of school can be just as important as being in school.

Tillie goes to a fine, fine school where kids learn about dinosaurs, build pyramids, and paint portraits. When her principal decides to call all the students and teachers together for an announcement, no one could have predicted he would say that there will be school on Saturdays! Soon everyone goes to school on Sundays, holidays, and even the summer. He loves school so much that he forgets to give anyone time off!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060007287
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	12/23/2003
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	AD500L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Sharon Creech has written twenty-one books for young people and is published in over twenty languages. Her books have received awards in both the U.S. and abroad, including the Newbery Medal for Walk Two Moons, the Newbery Honor for The Wanderer, and Great Britain’s Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler.

Before beginning her writing career, Sharon Creech taught English for fifteen years in England and Switzerland. She and her husband now live in Maine, “lured there by our grandchildren,” Creech says.

www.sharoncreech.com

New York Times bestselling artist Harry Bliss is a cartoonist and cover artist for the New Yorker magazine. He is the author and illustrator of Bailey and Luke on the Loose and the illustrator of A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech, Which Would You Rather Be? by William Steig, Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin, and Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo. His self-titled single panel gag cartoon Bliss appears in newspapers internationally. He lives in New Hampshire. You can visit him online at harrybliss.com.

Hometown:

Pennington, New Jersey

Date of Birth:

July 29, 1945

Place of Birth:

Cleveland, Ohio

Education:

B.A., Hiram College, 1967; M.A., George Mason University, 1978

Editorial Reviews

This book has it all.

ALA Booklist (starred review)

Charming, rhythmical and humorous.

BookPage.com

Teachers and students will cheer at this funny story about a real problem in modern education. Tillie likes school, but she also likes her weekends playing with her younger brother and dog. However, her enthusiastic principal believes that, since school is so beneficial, more school days would be even better for kids. The principal decides to add Saturdays to the schedule, then Sundays and so on, until Tillie opens his eyes to the value of playing and learning things outside of school. The illustrations are the perfect complement to this gentle satire about education run amok. <%END%>

School can be peachy, but that doesn't mean time away from school isn't just as valuable, which is the lesson Principal Keene has to learn in this charming story of a school administrator utterly rapt in his job. Mr. Keene just can't get enough of his fine school with all that fine learning being taught by the fine teachers to the fine students. So he decides to have school on Saturday, then Sunday, then on holidays, then the whole year through: "He was so proud of the students and the teachers, of all the learning they were doing every day." Literally. But the students and teachers aren't so sanguine about the situation, though no one wanted to prick Mr. Keene's balloon. Until Tillie finally tells him that some others are not learning because of all the school, like her dog, who hasn't learned how to sit, or her little brother, who hasn't learned how to swing or skip, because she's never home to teach them. Indeed, she hasn't learned to climb a tree for all the classroom time she's been putting in. Mr. Keene sees the light, beveling his enthusiasm and putting his good intentions into perspective. Creech's text capably moves the story forward, but it has all the humor of a stoat and the repetitions are overmuch. Yet Bliss ("Girl of the Shining Mountain", 1999, etc.) comes through not just to save the day, but to make the story memorable, with appealing characters and numerous silly sight gags and verbal asides, like the post-it notes that read "Massive Quiz Saturday" and "Power Nap 2 pm," the photo in the kid's locker from his parents signed "We Miss You Son!" and the TV screen that reads "The Best Cartoons in the World Start in 5 Minutes!!" just as Tillie is shuffling out the doorto school on Christmas. Just fine. "

Kirkus Reviews

Charming.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Impressive … Expressive … Clever.” — Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

“This book has it all.” — ALA Booklist (starred review)

“Charming, rhythmical and humorous.” — BookPage.com

From the Publisher

"This book has it all."

ALA Booklist