Bartleby of the Mighty Mississippi

by Phyllis Shalant

Overview

All Bartleby has ever known is life in his plastic bowl. Then his boy chucks him into the big water place. There Bartleby faces challenges both fearful and thrilling. He also meets another discarded pet-Seezer-an alligator whose true home is the Mighty Mississippi, too. Seezer wants Bartleby to help him seek out the great river. But can a small turtle trust a growing alligator? "The most redoubtable animal character down the pike since Avi's Poppy."-Booklist

Junior Library Guild Selection
New York Public Library 100 Best Books
Washington Irving Children's Choice Honor Book
Golden Sower Children's Choice Book Award nominee

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780595444779
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	04/05/2007
Pages:	180
Sales rank:	545,542
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.41(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Phyllis Shalant teaches creative writing to children and adults and lives in White Plains, New York.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 3-6-Bartleby is a red-eared turtle, a pet living in a bowl in a house full of rambunctious brothers. His adventure begins when the youngest boy thoughtlessly throws him into a nearby pond for a swim. He quickly learns which of the other pond dwellers are his friends. The only enigma is the alligator, Seezer, another discarded pet that longs for its natural home, the mighty Mississippi River. "We had many ssscrumptious red-ears near my nest [back home]-" threatens the menacing lizard. Yet, the creature is intrigued when, in order to save himself, Bartleby pretends to know the way to the Mississippi. An unlikely pair, Bartleby and Seezer set out together, and though there are many close calls, the determined little turtle ultimately gets them to a river that leads to their destination. Shalant's novel is a sweet, warm allegory about the pains of growing up. Bartleby struggles with staying away from his humans and feels the pain of heartache when they seem to abandon him. A gentle story with an ethical and likable main character dealing with his own uniqueness.-Judith Everitt, Orchard Hill Elementary School, Skillman, NJ Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Shalant (The Great Eye, 1996, etc.) presents a delightful fantasy about a pet turtle named Bartleby who wants to return to his home in the Mississippi. Seeing other red-eared turtles on television, he knows he belongs with more of his own kind in freedom. He gets the opportunity to escape when a petulant child retaliates against his sibling and tosses him into a swamp. Life outside of his comfy ginger is far from easy, however. There are "creatures of the claw, paw or jaw" that take advantage of his naïveté. With a little help from some friends—Mudly, a stinkpot turtle, Kingfisher, a duck named Mother Wak, and Muskrat—he is able to survive these daily threats. Bartleby heroically leads the greatest threat to their existence, an alligator named Seezer, back to the Mississippi with him. There are no interior illustrations, but the cover aptly conveys the final amiable relationship that is reached between Seezer and Bartleby when they realize they must put aside their opposite natures and work as a team to reach their final destination. (Fiction. 8-11)

Kirkus Reviews