Do Bananas Chew Gum? (Beech Tree Chapter Books) [Paperback]

Jamie Gilson (Author), Michael Garland (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 1997 | Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Beech Tree Chapter Books

Sam acts like a smart aleck to keep from looking dumbSam Mott's made it most of the way through sixth grade barely able to read and write. Now Sam's family's moved again, and none of the kids in his new school have started calling him Dumbhead Sam -- yet. But how long can Sam keep his problem secret when even the second grader he baby-sits for reads better than he does?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A wonderfully written story told with humor and compassion." -- -- Voice of Youth Advocates

"Sam's difficulties are skillfully handled with humor, understanding, and sympathy." -- -- School Journal Library

"Thoughtful and funny." -- -- Book Links

About the Author

Jamie Gilson has written sixteen books, all of them about children, most of them about children in school. And the elementary school where she gets many of her ideas is Central, which all three Gilson children attended. While Tom and Anne are now lawyers and Matthew a photographer, their mother still goes to Central School classes, notebook in hand, looking for stories.

She describes Central's cafeteria in Do Bananas Chew Gum?, its Spit Pit in Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub, and the contents of some of its fourth grade desks in Hobie Hanson, You're Weird. Central students have taught her how to sing "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells," how to chew a mint so it sparks in the dark, and how to play soccer on a field of mud.

She spent two weeks with the whole fifth grade class while, in a kind of total immersion, they studied the Western Movement. On the first day the boys and girls found out who they'd be married to for those two weeks. Then they took pioneer identities, joined a wagon train, chose supplies, decided whether to cross a rushing river at midnight, made pumpkin butter, dipped candles, and built mock fires with fake buffalo chips. They had a wonderful time--mostly. Jamie wrote a book about it: Wagon Train 911.

"It's true, though," she says, "that while Central is very special to me, every school is brimming with rich stories. I talk with children all over the country about my writing, and the one question they always ask is, 'Witt you put us in a book?' If I were there tong enough, I expect I could."

Jamie Gilson's professional life has always involved writing and communications. Formerly a teacher of junior high school speech and English, she was a staff writer and producer for Chicago Board of Education radio station WBEZ, a writer of Encyclopaedia Brittanica films, and continuity director for fine arts radio station WFMT. She was, for ten years, a monthly columnist for Chicago magazine.

Born in Beardstown, Illinois, Jamie Gilson spent her early years in small towns in Illinois and Missouri where her father worked as a flour miller. After graduating from Northwestern University School of Speech, she married Jerome Gilson, then a law student and now a trademark lawyer. They live within sight and sound of Lake Michigan in a suburb of Chicago.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (April 24, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688152945
• ISBN-13: 978-0688152949
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,629,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lifelong Favorite, February 10, 2000

By 

Jake Posner (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Do Bananas Chew Gum? (School & Library Binding)

I first read this book with my father when I was seven. I am now 23 and have re-read it many times. It deals with serious issues in a clever and funny way. I think most kids can relate to this story on some level. Everyone has felt like they are behind, or unable to follow a class. Everyone knows what its like to not fit in. Many people know what it's like to be the new kid in school. I had a lot of problems in school for my first three years. I didn't have a learning dissability, I just had trouble focusing. Consequently, I was often behind in my classwork and felt ashamed and slightly outcast. Finally, my parents realized I needed a more creative type of education and enrolled me in an experimental school. I excelled and proceeded to a brilliant academic career. I think this book suggests, not that students with different learning needs be sent to "special classrooms", but that their problems may result from a failed approach in the classroom. I think different kids, just like adults, need to be stimulated in different ways in order to absorb information. Sam's regular teachers failed to give him the skills and confidence he needed. Sam taking a few out of class tests dosen't mean he will spend time being in a "special" environment. It means he had someone help him in a new and creative way. It also gave him the confidence to believe in himself. This book is a total triumph. He starts out feeling like a friendless loser. By the end of the book Sam has two great friends, is begining to believe that he is smart, starts to see the skills he took for granted such as his math abilities, learns responsibility and that adults trust him. What isn't triumphant about that?

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Rarely Give 5 Stars, November 27, 2005

By 

Library Gaga (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Do Bananas Chew Gum? (Beech Tree Chapter Books) (Paperback)

First, let's dispense with the obvious. The title of this book refers to the first question on a learning disabilities test. Sam Mott is in sixth grade, but he reads at a second grade level. He has an undiagnosed learning disability, but in his moves from school to school, no one has been able to pin it down. Sam feels stupid, and erects mechanisms to disguise his `dumbness', like acting silly in class. We all know students like this, either as teachers or students. What we may not know is how painful and frustrating school is for these students.

Do Bananas Chew Gum? would be among the first books I would recommend to a child having trouble in school. The book ends on a hopeful note, with Sam realizing that if he works very hard, he will be able to get along fine. It presents a positive image of learning disabilities.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars i agree with jake, September 20, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Do Bananas Chew Gum? (Beech Tree Chapter Books) (Paperback)

I agree with everything the review below stated about how this book is triumphant and affirming of the main character. Furthermore, it is affirming of all of the main characters. Everyone, from Mrs. Glass, who learns not to sell herself short as a working woman; to Alicia, who learns that although "book smarts" come easy to her, she will have to work hard to develop her "people skills"; to Sam, who learns to value his mathmatical abilities, and stop considering himself as stupid because he has difficulties with reading.

I would like to take issue with the reviewer who criticized the book because Sam claims that his small reading victory is comparable to swimming a great distance. Why is that statement so offensive? In my mind any educational process, if you're really trying to learn and not simply going through the motions, feels exactly like that. I've always been a good student, but that doesn't mean that I didn't have to work hard to learn new things. That feeling of exhaustion and pride that you've really concentrated your efforts to learn something new shouldn't be a source of shame, it should be a source of pride.