Sarabella's Thinking Cap

by Judy Schachner

Overview

From the bestselling creator of Skippyjon Jones, a heartwarming story about the importance of imagination and creativity.

Sarabella is always thinking—conjuring, daydreaming, and creating new worlds from her imagination.  There is so much going on in her head that it can barely be contained. But there are times when daydreaming is decidedly not a good thing—like when you're supposed to be doing multiplication tables. Luckily, Sarabella has an understanding teacher and with his encouragement She comes up with her own idea to show everyone who she is.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525429180
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	09/05/2017
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	230,594
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Best known for her Skippyjon Jones series, Judy Schachner has illustrated many of her own stories, including the much-loved The Grannyman and its companion book, Bits & Pieces. She has also illustrated stories by others, including I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson and How the Cat Swallowed Thunder by Lloyd Alexander. She lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

07/17/2017
Punning on the plural of cerebellum, Schachner (the SkippyJon Jones series) introduces a girl who is at her happiest when she’s alone with her thoughts. With her “feet on the ground and her head in the clouds,” Sarabella is beloved by her passionately creative family, but her teacher, Mr. Fantozzi, hopes she’ll find a way to focus, as well as share her thoughts. Inspired by a classroom assignment, Sarabella crafts a thinking cap made of paper, magazine clippings, stickers, and stamps, allowing her classmates to see the swirl of ideas in her head. Readers have much more access to Sarabella’s thoughts thanks to Schachner’s sprawling mixed-media collages, themselves a tangle of imagery and loosely formed associations: in one jam-packed thought balloon, lithographic images of sea turtles, sheep, and a cabbage jockey for space with hand-drawn ants, words in English and French, and a cartoon string bean. Mr. Fantozzi is a memorable force in Sarabella’s life: he never shames her imaginative wanderings and instead celebrates her inquisitiveness. Readers, particularly introspective types, are sure to see the magic in Sarabella’s perspective. Ages 5–8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Sarabella's Thinking Cap

"This gentle book provides support for every child who daydreams in school and a wake-up call for her or his teachers. . . . A lovely celebration of creativity and a different learning style."
—Booklist

“Readers, particularly introspective types, are sure to see the magic in Sarabella’s perspective.”
—Publishers Weekly
 
“This is the sweetest read aloud for any child, but particularly for the little daydreamer in your life.”
—Geekdad
 
“Sarabella’s ideas, seen through Schachner’s dazzling illustrations, are presented as wonderfully imaginative.”
—School Library Journal

"More than a tribute to a child’s imagination . . . A tender, sensitive tribute to those introspective students in a classroom, who don’t always quite fit the standard educational mold—a welcome thing, indeed."
—Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“This is a great example of the creativity in divergent brains.”
—Imagination Soup
 
“This is an exceptional book! It reveals the inner and outer world of a child with attention challenges, presenting this issue as a gift rather than a disability. The fanciful watercolor illustrations are charming and fun. This book is a valuable resource for any child who struggles in school. It could serve as a valuable tool to encourage understanding and respect of individual differences in the classroom as well.”
—Culture Honey

From the Publisher

09/01/2017
PreS-Gr 2—Sarabella daydreams constantly but doesn't communicate her thoughts. Her parents, creative types themselves, don't share her teacher's concern that she needs to focus more in school. Her puppet-loving older sister suggests she "take deep breaths and squint" to facilitate concentration, but this just results in a dizzy spell and visit to the school nurse. Finally, a weekend assignment requiring students to draw their thoughts prompts the youngster to follow the advice of the beautiful whale living in her imagination: "To share it, you've/ just got to wear it." After much coloring, cutting, and pasting, she arrives at school wearing a hat containing "the most spectacular collection of doodles and daydreams." The lengthy text includes phrases like "Seeds of ideas" printed in grass and words such as "reason," "reflect," and "ponder" in a flower pot. The colorful illustrations, executed in acrylics, gouache, collage, and mixed media, depict Sarabella's daydreams in huge bubbles containing a cornucopia of objects. Her hat is so remarkable that it stretches across a spread. In humorous contrast, her cat appears repeatedly sporting the same thought: fish. This child has "a green thumb for thinking." Yet this is problematic in school where her teacher, though kind, repeatedly requests that she focus on her work instead of allowing her to learn in her own way. The scene in which she draws her thoughts reveals a distressed girl with "an upset tummy." VERDICT While Sarabella's ideas, seen through Schachner's dazzling illustrations, are presented as wonderfully imaginative, Peter Reynolds's Happy Dreamer offers a much more exuberant dreamer and encouragement for readers to follow his example.—Marianne Saccardi, Children's Literature Consultant, Cambridge, MA

School Library Journal

2017-06-14
Sarabella is a quiet and contemplative young girl who doesn't always choose to verbalize her thoughts.Within her family, Sarabella's parents and older sister are all creatives of various stripes. (All are pale-skinned; Sarabella and her father have black hair, while her mother and sister have brown.) They love and understand Sarabella as she is. However, at school, her teacher is concerned. He feels that Sarabella should daydream less and articulate more. He assigns the class a project in which students draw their favorite thoughts. This inspires Sarabella to share her ideas in a novel way that is truly fitting for her. Visually, the book is often quite stunning, with Sarabella's thoughts sweeping across the pages as colorful and multitextured collages of images and words. However, the story's message that creative children may express themselves differently than others is dampened by its presentation as a problem to be solved. Sarabella sometimes needs extra time to complete her assignments, but her meandering mind doesn't seem to be negatively affecting her learning or her ability to connect with others. This makes her teacher's concern come across as simply a desire for conformity in the classroom. Additionally, when Sarabella stays up all night to complete her assignment, her effort reads more as a response to pressure than a truly joyful inspiration. A specious attempt to present an inclusive view of the self-expression of creative children. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews

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