Customer Reviews

Do Bananas Chew Gum? (Beech Tree Chapter Books)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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?

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.

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.

I strongly disagree with the review that states this book is not positive and allows institutions to rationalize the learning disabled. I have dyslexia and have successfully graduated from top undergrad and law schools. This book made me feel less alone at a time when dyslexia was little understood and it also allowed me to see that "stupid" is a relative term defined mainly by the ignorant. We each have different strengths and weaknesses and this book celebrates that while at the same time illustrating that weaknesses may be improved upon with hard work.

This book is great for kids who like books that have many problems to deal with and if you like kids with a learning disability. It probably has issues you have to deal with in your life spand. When you first read it, it might be boring for you, but as you get to the middle it gets really interesting. The setting of the book are great because all through the whole course of the book. Sam and his friends (Alica and Wally) do things together and help each other out. Anybody who reads this book will like it very much!

This book is fun to read because the writing is crisp and fast-paced with funny dialogue, but it is more than that because of its serious subject. The reader does indeed sympathize with the main character who is a very bright boy who feels dumb because of his learning disability. When the main character gets help in the end of the story, the reader shares his joy and sense of triumph. I coordinated an authors' festival in which children's authors were invited to visit seven schools in the Downers Grove area. Jamie Gilson visited several of our schools. Many students read "Do Bananas Chew Gum?" among other titles. The students enjoyed the books and were very excited about meeting Ms. Gilson. I personally spoke to two special education teachers who loved "Do Bananas Chew Gum?" and wanted to purchase whole sets of the book.

Bought it for my 30th birthday with a check my elementary Discovery teacher sent me, thanks Mrs. B!!

It is hard to rate this product because I have yet to see it. I ordered it to read to my class and a month later I am still waiting for it. After contacting the company they said it is shipped and gave me an extended arrival date. I will be sure to shop else where from now on.

I read this book last year (when i was in 4th grade) for a book report. I hated it so much and thought it was so boring that when it came to the part of the book report when choosing my favorite part and favorite character, the ones I choose I hated viciously. it was so boring, I tried to concentrate and remember what was happening but i fell asleep as if my eyelids were heavy from watching 5 consecutive hours of tv. the author didn't portray Sam (the disabled character) with any strong effort to overcome his problems, instead by not funny at all humor. Sam is no Louis Braille. This won the Carl Sandburg Award?! I'd give it zero stars if I could. A great book that won very prestiguous award that wasn't boring was "The Westing Game". "Do bananas chew gum" never met my favorite book. It never will. It's on my very, very, very, (etc., etc.) worst list.

My son read this book at the beginning of this school year (5th grade). He struggles with reading and spelling. He so totally identified with the main character, Sam, that he labeled himself dumb, stupid and learning disabled. This is not a triumphant story. This is a tragic story. The protagonist does not feel he has overcome or mastered his learning disablity. Instead, he feels worn out and akins his small victory to having swum a great distance, only to realize that he must do it again and again. I believe that there is a political agenda at work here. Masked behind an attitude of sympathy is the deeper message that children should equate special education with learning disablities. Furthermore, it excuses the classroom teacher from having to deal with student difficulties by making it not only okay, but acceptable BY THE STUDENTS to send children from the room to another, "special" teacher. Basically, this leaves the gifted and talented in the main classroom and separates the "normal" from the "not normal". This book is subversive and an insult. It should not be in the classroom. It gives children access to a vocabulary that they cannot possibly fully comprehend (nor, I suspect, does its author). It provides students with tools to label themselves, thereby easing the burden of the school systems. Proponets of this book can only have the political and monetary protection of the institution in mind when promoting it for classroom reading. While seemingly innocent on the surface, a critical reader will see beyond the surface to the deeper meaning and hidden agenda. Of course, fifth graders aren't critical readers, they are victims of school politics.