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| An American Bookseller “Pick of the Lists” An IRA-CBC Children’s Choice A Bank Street College of Education Best Book for Children Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2001 (Grade 3-6) Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year, 1998 Publisher’s Weekly Flying Start (1998) (see article here) Publishers Weekly (starred review) It's hard to imagine a more engaging (or comical) way to learn the 50 states and their locations than in this auspicious debut from Keller. Dorothy may have thought there's no place like home when she clicked her red ruby slippers, but her native state's wanderlust starts all the trouble here. Kansas is bored ("All day long we just sit here in the middle of the country. We never GO anywhere. we never DO anything") and drafts best friend Nebraska into the cause of stirring things up. Soon they're throwing a potluck party for all the states (the spread includes "Iowa Corn Surprise" and "Boston Baked Beans") and everyone delights in the idea of seeing another part of the country. Keller bestows a unique personality onto each of the states, yet keeps them true to their national identity. Kansas gets to take exotic Hawaii's place ("Aloha, world!"), Wisconsin packs up its famous cheese, Nevada and Mississippi fall in love ("Do you want to become MRS.issippi?" Nevada asks), and in a subtle lesson, Maryland places the Washington Monument and Capitol building carefully in a suitcase ("Are you o.k. in there Mr. President?"). Keller cleverly illustrates the chaos that ensues when the states cross country (e.g., the displaced Great Lakes ask, "Um... where did Michigan go?"). Soon the gang get homesick for their native lands, and New York hails a taxi home, California flies west in a plane, while a hitchhiking Connecticut cops a ride with Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maine. Readers will unwittingly learn more than they bargained for about the (finally) United States, while poring over the endless witty remarks exchanged over state lines. (PW best book of 1998) Children's Literature The fifty states of America are bored with their normal positions on the map. They are depressed because they never get to go anywhere or see anything except their neighboring states. Uncle Sam tells this whimsical story as the states devise a plan that will change everything, including their location. The states throw the first annual states party, and everyone is invited. The big event soon arrives and all the states mingle and get to know each other. Virginia and Idaho create a plan to switch places, and before the affair is over, all the states decide to swap spots. They are finally going to venture forth to other parts of the country, but there is always a price to pay for happiness. At first, everyone is pleased with their new locations, but then each state begins to realize that nothing is the way they thought it was going to be. Florida was too cold up north, Kansas was surrounded by water, and nature seemed to place a damper on every state. There was only one alternative. You guessed it! They must return to their correct spot on the map. This unusual story introduces children to all of the 50 states in a humorous and comical way. Each page is packed full of state and geography facts. It also is a lovely read-aloud for children who are just learning to identify the 50 states of the USA. A full-color map and state fact pages are also included. School Library Journal (starred review) Gr 3-5-A geography lesson par excellence, this clever picture book also offers great extension opportunities for the classroom. Through the voice of Uncle Sam, Keller suggests that the individual states of America have become tired of their physical positions and bored with their contiguous partners. So they decide to switch: Arizona, for example, trades places with South Carolina, Florida with Minnesota, and Kansas with Hawaii. Before long, however, they discover, as Dorothy did in The Wizard of Oz, that there's no place like home, and they all return, amid much mayhem, to their original spots. In following their journeys, children will not only become involved in their stories but will also learn a lot about the "the good old U.S. of A." Keller's imaginative story, her pop-art illustrations that sprawl in and around the text, and her amusing asides will have kids quickly chiming in with sayings of their own. The clever personifications of the states will stimulate students to research the individual characteristics of their own homes, as well as those of the other states. A graphic fact chart is appended along with a montage of funny cartoons that show mixed-up sites and mascots, as Kansas sunflowers cross the Golden Gate Bridge, Florida oranges race Kentucky Derby horses, and the Statue of Liberty greets the faces on Mt. Rushmore.-Barbara Elleman, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI Sean Kelly Kirkus Reviews Imagine the states, Kansas, California, Ohio, and all the rest, as people with toothy grins, ping-pong balls for eyes, pipe cleaner limbs, and full-blown personalities. Imagine, then, that they get together at a party and decide to switch places on the map. In this amusing spoof, Kansas wakes up one morning saying, "I'm not feeling happy at all!" and starts the whole thing. Florida goes to Minnesota, California goes to Wisconsin, Nevada and Mississippi fall in love. Then the trouble starts: Alaska, who had missed company, feels claustrophobic among other states; Kansas finds his place in the middle of the ocean to be a bit too quiet; Minnesota, in Florida's spot, forgets to pack suntan lotion; and so on. Soon the states are rushing back to their original spots with sighs of relief. Keller, in her first book pushes a silly idea, to great lengths, and will elicit laughs from all those who thought geography was boring. The states are colorful, boastful, belligerent, and charming, in collage illustrations that are full of spontaneous asides and intriguing labels. The states appear in a final gallery, with a few statistics to square off the whole funny enterprise. Booklist Once upon a time, Kansas and Nebraska had a party. All the states came, put on name tags, and made friends. Soon they decided to change places with one another. Although the switch started out as an adventure, it ended up with a lot of unhappy states: Minnesota was sunburned, Florida was freezing, and Kansas was lonely and seasick out in the middle of the Pacific. So they all went back home, where they compared notes with their neighbors. The book ends with two large spreads featuring each smiling state, its capital, area, population, and nickname. The idea is original and the writing clever, but much of the book's fun comes in the illustrations, which depict the characters as distinctively state-shaped entities with expressive faces and tiny lines for arms and legs. Bright colors, humorous cartoon-style comments from the states, and the tongue-in-cheek tone of the text add appeal for the intended audience as well as for the adults who may be reading aloud. A lighthearted, yet informative introduction to 50 states. Carolyn Phelan Parents' Choice® It takes an obsessive brand of wackiness to bring off a picture book whose protagonists are the fifty states of America. In this first picture book by Laurie Keller, she manages to succeed in making her young audience acquire a pretty good idea of where each state is. She even gets the young reader to watch with suspense the budding romance between Mississippi and Nevada. At story's end, there are four pages of the states, pictured alphabetically, listing each state's size, capital, population and square mileage. This entertaining educational tool won't be to every child's liking, but those on its wavelength are likely to turn to it again and again. New York Times Book Review November 15, 1998 Miss. Loves Nev. A storybook about the crazy things that can happen when states don't know their places. By SEAN KELLY Suppose (some do) that America's present moral and intellectual crisis is the direct result of a century of ''progressive'' education. Ninety-nine years ago, John Dewey published ''The School and Society,'' and the liberals fell for it. Now, on the brink of the millennium, Johnny can't read, Johnny can't add, and Heather has two mommies. High time, then (some say), to bring back classroom Discipline, the instillation of Values and instruction in the Core Curriculum. Our overpaid, coddled grade school teachers must, as they did in days of yore, compel -- by all means necessary -- their pupils to memorize multiplication tables, irregular verbs, chemical formulas, historical dates -- and render them able, by golly, to recite all Ten Commandments and the United States Presidents in chronological order! Still, it goes without saying that learning should be fun. This is why so many of today's up-to-date pedagogues subscribe to the Children's Television Workshop Sugar-Coating System (or C.T.W.S.C.S.). It's easy as store-bought pi. The content of the lesson -- good old Core Curriculum -- is presented in so way-cool and hip-hop a form that the little suckers don't twig to the fact that they're learning something until . . . it's too late! And the beauty part is that the C.T.W.S.C.S. can be applied to any school subject, no matter how tedious. Take geography, as Laurie Keller has in ''The Scrambled States of America.'' This charming book's many full-color illustrations are rendered in the ersatz primitive cartoon/collage style associated 30 years ago with ''underground'' comics, but now familiar to all toddlers with access to the Nickelodeon network. Here's the story they tell: Kansas is bored, and invites all the other states to a big party. Once there, they decide to change places on the map. After wacky complications ensue, they return to their original positions.' "The Scrambled States of America'' is not for preschoolers, not a read-aloud and not a geography textbook per se. It is ''supplementary reading,'' a tongue-in-cheek commentary that depends for its effect on the reader's familiarity with material, in this case an atlas of the United States. Amused by the anthropomorphic personalities of the states (Nebraska is ''kind,'' Idaho is ''polite,'' North and South Dakota ''bicker''), and their adventures (Mississippi and Nevada fall in love), the young reader may be expected to absorb, subliminally as it were, individual configurations, locations on the map or, at the very least, their names. (Like all the subjects that form the Core Curriculum, such knowledge has practical applications -- e.g., should the reader someday find herself the chairwoman of a political party convention and the prompting machine malfunction during the roll-call of the states.) Keller's ''scrambled'' gimmick is a valuable addition to the C.T.W.S.C.S., and one can imagine its application to other Core Curriculum subjects: ''Scrambled Nations'' (Brazil is ''kind,'' Poland is ''polite,'' Iran and Iraq ''bicker''); ''Scrambled Geometry'' (the square of the hypotenuse falls in love with the circumference), ad infinitum. But it is to be hoped that any future such projects will, as does ''The Scrambled States of America,'' inculcate more than mere information. A profound lesson is imparted when, at the story's end, the states happily resume their original positions: Kids, it's harmless fun to imagine changing things, but when you come right down to it, everything is perfect just the way it is. Sean Kelly has written scripts for the PBS series ''Shining Time Station,'' ''The Magic School Bus'' and ''Noddy and Friends.'' |
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