Synopses & Reviews
Sara has always loved cats. She surrounds herself with pictures of cats, stuffed cats, even cat-headed slippers. But she’s never been allowed to have a real cat of her own. Her father has always told her no, for reasons he won’t explain.
So when a fluffy snowball of a kitten darts through their front door and into her life, Sara believes her dream might finally come true. But convincing her father to break his strict No Cats policy seems impossible. She has less than a week to persuade him that this kitten is exactly what their lonely, broken family of two needs to heal.
Told in lyrical, spare verse, Serendipity & Me is a sparkling novel that elegantly handles the topic of loss for a middle grade audience.
Review
Praise for Serendipity and Me by Judith Roth: "Roth welcomes readers with spot-on depictions of kitten antics and feelings common to middle-schoolers." —Booklist
"...evocative and frequently poignant." —BCCB
"This is a compassionately told tale, reminiscent in tone of Katherine Patersons Bridge to Terabithia (HarperCollins, 1977) and Cynthia Rylants Missing May (Orchard, 1991)." —School Library Journal
Synopsis
Return to Miss Stretchberry's class with Jack, the reluctant poet, who over the course of a year encounters new and challenging things like metaphors, alliterations, onomatopoeia, and one mean fat black cat
The Newbery Medal-winning author of Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech, introduced Jack in Love That Dog, a New York Times bestseller. Both Love That Dog and Hate That Cat are approachable, funny, warm-hearted introductions to poetry told from the point of view of a very real kid wrestling with school assignments.
These books are fast reads that will be welcomed by middle graders as they too wonder how poetry and schoolwork connect with their interests and how to uncover their true voices.
In Hate That Cat, Jack is only trying to save that fat black cat stuck in the tree by his bus stop--but the cat scratches him instead At school Miss Stretchberry begins teaching new poems, everything from William Carlos Williams to Valerie Worth to T.S. Eliot.
As the year progresses, Jack gradually learns to love that cat and finds new ways to express himself.
Synopsis
Jack
Room 204—Miss Stretchberry
February 25
Today the fat black cat
up in the tree by the bus stop
dropped a nut on my head
thunk
and when I yelled at it
that fat black cat said
Murr-mee-urrr
in a
nasty
spiteful
way.
I hate that cat.
This is the story of
Jack
words
sounds
silence
teacher
and cat.
Synopsis
In this middle grade novel-in-verse by the Newbery Medal-winning and Coretta Scott King Honor Award-winning author of The Crossover, a twelve-year-old, soccer-loving boy named Nick, absolutely hates books. In Kwame Alexander's latest poetic tour de force, it's books versus soccer balls in a match-up you won't want to miss!
About the Author
Sharon Creech is the author of the Newbery Medal winner Walk Two Moons and the Newbery Honor Book The Wanderer. Her other work includes the novels The Great Unexpected, The Unfinished Angel, Hate That Cat, The Castle Corona, Replay, Heartbeat, Granny Torrelli Makes Soup, Ruby Holler, Love That Dog, Bloomability, Absolutely Normal Chaos, Chasing Redbird, and Pleasing the Ghost, as well as three picture books: A Fine, Fine School; Fishing in the Air; and Who's That Baby? Ms. Creech and her husband live in Maine.