Big Bob and the Thanksgiving Potatoes [Unknown Binding]

Daniel Pinkwater (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 2001

Life can be difficult when you are big. And Big Bob is very big. He's lucky to find a friend in Big Gloria, who, like Big Bob, is a vegetarian. What's their favorite food, even for Thanksgiving dinner? Potatoes! Potatoes! Potatoes!

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Unknown Binding
• Publisher: Perfection Learning Prebound (February 28, 2001)
• ISBN-10: 0756903998
• ISBN-13: 978-0756903992
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,030,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Daniel Pinkwater lives with his wife, the illustrator and novelist Jill Pinkwater, and several dogs and cats in a very old farmhouse in New York's Hudson River Valley.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Spud Themed Book, September 24, 2010

By 

Spudman (Pasadena, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Big Bob And The Thanksgiving Potato (level 1) (Hello Reader) (Paperback)

Big Bob and the Thanksgiving Potatoes is a book in Scholastic's Hello Reader! Series. It is a level 3 book ( NOT level one as shown in the listing) targeted for students in grades one and two. Among books in the extensive series are "Ballerina Dreams", Big Bob and the Magic Valentine's Day Potato", "A Girl Names Helen Keller", "Monster Manners", and "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Bully".

Preceding the title page is a letter addressed to family members by reading specialist. Francie Alexander. She points out the roles of sight words, phonic decoding, picture interpretation and text clues in the reading process. She shares a list of very comprehensive and useful activities for before, during, and after reading. I've seen such lists from so-called specialists that are gobbledygook. Alexander's suggestions are sensible and pertinent.

In this the first of the four Big Bob books (Thanksgiving Potato, Holiday Potato, Valentine's Day Potato, Halloween Potato) we are introduced to the group of four friends and their affable, rotund teacher, Mr. Salami. Bob is a very empathetic character with whom any child who has been picked on for being different can identify. Bob copes well by vocalizing his feelings and making friends with kindred spirits. Young readers may also enjoy the nonconformity of Bob and Gloria. They are different but never impolite or disruptive.

The Scholastic site recommends this book for readers aged 4 to 8 and has determined its reading level as 1.5. The author skillfully tells his story with mostly one-syllable words and much helpful repetition, a necessary reinforcement tool for the juvenile reader. The Common Sense Media site suggests this as a read aloud book for ages 4 to 6 and a read alone book for ages 6 to 8. That's a fairly accurate assessment in my opinion.

Some of the more difficult words for first graders might be: problem, clumsy, laugh, dumb, surprised, squash, Boris, pillow, behave, pirates, satisfactory, decorations, vegetarian.

It's interesting to see the development of the four child characters and see their friendship and personalities mesh. Their common bonds become stronger and richer in the subsequent books as they might in a sitcom ensemble.

Oddly there are no contractions used in this book making the conversational language seem a little stilted. This omission of contractions actually seems like a great simplification in the context of this book. It actually adds a bit of quirky charm.

The illustrations of Jill Pinkwater will also appeal to the young readers. They are will done but not overly complex, with the appearance of drawings done by an advanced youngster. Though simply drawn the faces are expressive, showing various emotions and degree of feelings. I especially liked the Pilgrim potato sketches and also the killer space potato.

I enjoyed this book though it lacks a dramatic climax ,finality , or denouement. (Just kidding) The open-ended final page is appropriate for discussion and prediction. Predictions can be justified by the reader's understanding of the characters, especially Mr. Salami.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent learning resource, January 9, 2003

By 

nickunt (Nottingham, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Big Bob And The Thanksgiving Potato (level 1) (Hello Reader) (Paperback)

I bought my children this book, and they *love* it! Join Big Bob as he takes a visit into town, shopping for Thanksgiving dinner, and help him correct the calamitous spelling and grammatical errors he finds on his journey. From the "Donna" Kebab shop, to the "Fish and Chip's" shop, it's fun every step of the way. Laugh as he tries to rent "Fried Green Tomatos at the Whistle Stop Cafe" from the "DVD's and Video's" shop, wince as he reads a "Smile, your on camera!" sign above the till, and grin, as he ultimately ends up at the "grocerys store" to buy his "Thanksgiving Potatos". I just hope that the author's middle name isn't a spelling mistake as well!
Well worth a "reed".