Comments for Yellowbelly and Plum Go to School

Yellowbelly and Plum Go to School: 07/05/10

I discovered Nathan Hale via his wonderful work illustrating Shannon and Dean Hale's Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack. He has his own series of children's picture books staring Yellowbelly and Plum. The one I picked at random to read first was Yellowbelly and Plum Go to School.

Yellowbelly looks like a yellow furry friendly monster. Plum looks like a purple teddy bear. Now at first glance, the book is about a young monster who goes to school for the first time and like many children, takes along his favorite toy. The older, more experienced kids, tease the new student and take away the toy to roughhouse with it. If this were a typical book, Yellowbelly would learn not to take his favorite toy to school and the other children would learn not to tease the new kid.

This isn't one of those books. First and foremost, Yellowbelly lives in a world where monsters (for lack of a better word) and humans live side by side. If monsters are possible, it's equally as possible that Plum might be more than what he appears to be. The other students pick up on this and soon both new students are welcome members of the school.

As I mentioned I came to the story already in love with Hale's artwork, sense of humor and blog. For my son though, this was his introduction to Hale's work. He loved the book because the monsters and children were living together in the same world. The monsters were monsters and the children were children. It was, as far as he was concerned, perfect.

Recent posts

Month in review

Reviews
ABC I Like Me by Nancy Carlson
The Blight Family Singers by Kit Reed
The Blue Food Revolution by Tim Roux
Bone: The Great Cow Race by Jeff Smith
Bone: Eyes of the Storm by Jeff Smith
The Channel: Stories from L. A. by Susan Alcott Jardine
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
The Clue of the Broken Locket by Carolyn Keene
Building Manhattan by Laura Vila
The Dreamer: The Consequence of Nathan Hale by Lora Innes
Earthquake in the Early Morning (Magic Tree House #24) by Mary Pope Osborne
"The Economy of Vacuum" by Sarah Thomas
The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieszka
A Gift of Magic by Lois Duncan
Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley
Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck
I Needs Must Part, The Policeman Said by Richard Bowes
It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw
Jenny's Birthday Book by Esther Averill
The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
The Little Band by James Sage
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Oscar and the Cricket by Geoff Waring
Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell
A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro
Stage Fright on a Summer Night (Magic Tree House #25) by Mary Pope Osborne
The Staircase by Ann Rinaldi
"Star-Crossed" by Tim Sullivan
Swine Not? by Jimmy Buffett
Take Me Out to the Ballgame by Gary Morgenstein
Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R.L. LaFevers
The Titan's Curse Rick Riordan
Under the Lemon Trees by Bhira Backhaus
Yellowbelly and Plum Go to School by Nathan Hale

What Am I Reading
July 19, 2010
July 26, 2010

Comments for Yellowbelly and Plum Go to School

Yellowbelly and Plum Go to School: 07/05/10

Other posts and reviews

Recent posts