Miss Smith Under the Ocean

by Michael Garland, Michael Garland (Illustrator)

Overview

Miss Smith's class can't wait for story time. When their teacher reads from her incredible storybook, the worlds she describes come alive-literally! So when the class takes a field trip to the local aquarium, reading magic brings favorite nautical characters to life, including Long John Silver and the Swiss Family Robinson. From swimming with the Little Mermaid to rescuing their treasured storybook from scurvy pirates, it's another rollicking reading adventure Miss Smith's class - and readers - won't soon forget.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101648476
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	04/28/2011
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	24 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

I was born on 34th Street in Manhattan. My parents were from Queens. They married when my dad returned from World War II; he then joined the ranks of the NYPD. A sister and two brothers rounded out my family. When our Stuyvesant Town apartment grew too small, we moved to the relative wilds of Staten Island.

I spent my childhood roaming the woods, playing sports, crossing the street without looking both ways, and drawing. Drawing was the thing I did best. I wasn’t the smartest one in my class or the best athlete in any sport, but when they passed out the paper and crayons, it was my time to shine. My teachers would never hold up my math test as an example, but everything I drew would be shown to the class and given a place of honor on the bulletin board. I started to think I might become an artist.

After high school, I went to Pratt Institute to study art. I cleaned the floors in a nursing home and drove a cab nights and weekends. Soon after graduating, I sold my first illustration to True Confessions magazine. I was on my way—at the beginning of a thirty-year career of illustrating everything you could imagine. I now have twenty-three books in print, and several more in the pipeline.

Along the way, I married Peggy and we had three children: Katie, Alice and Kevin. Two are in college and one is about to start (please buy my books!). We live in Putnam County, New York.

Sixteen years ago I decided I wanted to be a writer as well as an artist. Sixteen published books later, I’m still at it.
I was born on 34th Street in Manhattan. My parents were from Queens. They married when my dad returned from World War II; he then joined the ranks of the NYPD. A sister and two brothers rounded out my family. When our Stuyvesant Town apartment grew too small, we moved to the relative wilds of Staten Island.

I spent my childhood roaming the woods, playing sports, crossing the street without looking both ways, and drawing. Drawing was the thing I did best. I wasn’t the smartest one in my class or the best athlete in any sport, but when they passed out the paper and crayons, it was my time to shine. My teachers would never hold up my math test as an example, but everything I drew would be shown to the class and given a place of honor on the bulletin board. I started to think I might become an artist.

After high school, I went to Pratt Institute to study art. I cleaned the floors in a nursing home and drove a cab nights and weekends. Soon after graduating, I sold my first illustration to True Confessions magazine. I was on my way—at the beginning of a thirty-year career of illustrating everything you could imagine. I now have twenty-three books in print, and several more in the pipeline.

Along the way, I married Peggy and we had three children: Katie, Alice and Kevin. Two are in college and one is about to start (please buy my books!). We live in Putnam County, New York.

Sixteen years ago I decided I wanted to be a writer as well as an artist. Sixteen published books later, I’m still at it.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 1–4—During a trip to the aquarium, Miss Smith (think Mo in Inkheart) opens her Incredible Storybook and in a flash her class teleports to the Owl and the Pussycat's pea-green boat. Through shipwrecks and storms, the children literally run into the likes of Moby-Dick, Robinson Crusoe, the Little Mermaid, Gulliver, and Captain Nemo in his forever-at-sea Nautilus and complete an episodic journey from the death-churning sea to the safety of a ship. Garland's brightly hued, computer-rendered illustrations fit the aesthetic of gaming kids today. So does the action-packed plot. For the other great elements of fiction and picture-book art, grab your spyglass and look elsewhere. This offering is great for libraries peddling the classics to their students and looking to dazzle bored kids, but it's a far cry from classic picture books that beg to be read and read again.—Sara Lissa Paulson, American Sign Language and English Lower School PS 347, New York City

School Library Journal