Bertie's Picture Day - Hardcover

Pat Brisson is the author of Little Sister, Big Sister and Hot Fudge Hero, which was named a Parent's Choice Honor Book and one of New York Public Library's "100 Titles for Reading and Sharing." The mother of four grown sons, Ms. Brisson lives with her husband in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.

Diana Cain Bluthenthal is the illustrator of several children's books including Little Sister, Big Sister and Hot Fudge Hero. She lives with her husband and two young sons in the Florida Keys.

Gr. 2-3. Brisson, the author of Hot Fudge Hero (1997), lets kids in on a corollary to Murphy's Law: everything that can go wrong before school pictures are taken, will. In this easy chapter book, second-grader Bertie is overjoyed when a kickball hits him in the face and he loses his fourth front tooth, making a perfect square hole for fitting a straw through. The second chapter features a collision at first base, which knocks out two of his sister Eloise's teeth and leads to Bertie's first black eye ("'Cool!' said Bertie."). Next, Eloise gives him a disastrous haircut while he sleeps. The last chapter shows Bertie on school picture day and a few weeks later, as he mails a classic photo to his grandparents, complete with gap-toothed grin, shiner, and bad haircut. The funny situations; the short, pithy text; and the sympathetic portrayal of sibling interplay combine to make this a very readable story. Diana Cain Bluthenthal's cartoonlike ink drawings, washed with grays, appear on every page, lightening the look of the pages and adding their own irrepressible humor. Carolyn Phelan
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