Customer Reviews

Fish Face (The Kids of the Polk Street School)

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

 

 

This book is one I read 11 years back when I was in 4th grade. These Polk St. school books are a lot of fun for everyone! My dad used to send away for Weekly Reader Books for me and one that came in the mail was book #1 in this series, The Beast In Ms. Rooney's Room. I'd enjoyed it and didn't realize it was a series until I saw a friend reading different Polk St. books. I ran out and bought this one, #2. It is so good. About Emily, who befriends a new girl, Dawn from Florida. Then Emily's rubber unicorn, Uni, her prized posession, turns up missing and Emily has a notion Dawn took it but can't prove it. She is devistated. I won't tell you anymore, you need to read it yourself.

When I became an elementary teacher, the very first author a librarian recommended to me was Patricia Reilly Giff! And years later I am still reading her books with my students and enjoying them immensely. If you didn't like Fish Face, fine, but don't expunge all of Giff's great body of work. We're reading The Gift of the Pirate Queen right now and it's great. Patricia Reilly Giff, keep up the good work!

The beauty about this series is that it breaks down people's prejudices. Each child featured has something odd about them that a reader can identify with. None of the characters are perfect...like real life. As the reader gets to know each character, he or she grows to love them...as do the other characters within the book. The story reflects life, it's sadness and its joys, and keeps you interested. There is always a lesson to be learned in each book in the Polk Street School Series. I do wish they credited the cover artist, as I worked so hard to do the book justice. My name is Joanne Scribner, and so far I've redone the covers for: December Secrets, Candy Corn Contest, The Beast In Ms. Rooney's Room, and Fish Face. I've also done new covers for: Snaggle Doodles, The Valentine Star, and The Dinosaur's Paw...coming out soon. As the cover artist is never named, (only the interior artist).....please look carefully, and you can tell who did the covers. Hope you enjoy this series. I'll keep working on the rest of the covers in the series for you...So please let me know what you think.

The reason I like it is I like exciting stories and the description sounded exciting. Unfortunately, it wasn't as exciting as I thought but it still was pretty exciting.

A character, called Dawn, stole something of the main character's, Emily's unicorn. Without it, she can't run fast.

Emily knew right away that Dawn had stolen it. She didn't have to find out. I think it would've been more exciting if she had looked for clues or something because then it would be more like a mystery and she would suspect other people in the story and I would be trying to solve it.

I hope you like it.

From an 8 year old.

Fish Face is a fun book for early readers. Emily Arrow is a typical second grader. She loves to read and is the fastest runner in her class. She also likes to have lots of friends, but when she tries to be friends with a new girl in class it proves to be rather difficult. Dawn has moved to town and now sits right next to Emily in class. Although Emily tries to get to know her, Dawn seems uninterested in being her friend. When Emily's unicorn turns up missing, she is sure that Dawn is the culprit. How will Emily prove that Dawn is not nice and get her unicorn back? Or will she find a better approach to the problem? Only way to find out is to read it for yourself!

This is my first time reading any of Patricia Reilly Giff's books. It was recommended to me by my daughter who read it in second grade. It is an easy reader for first or second graders and gives a good message. Hope you enjoy it as much as my daughter did!

By Kerri J. Busteed
Author of Will's First Hunt Will's First Hunt

This book is fiction. It is in a school during the school day. A new student is unhappy and stole Emily's uni. Emily came into class late from recess, because she was saving a worm. Her lucky piece uni was gone. She felt that Dawn took it. Dawn said that Emily looked like a fish. Emily dropped all her books and had to sit in the hall. Beast was cheing gum and had to sit in the hallway by Emily. I liked the surprise birthday party. I did not like that Emily was always in trouble.

My son is in the first grade and reading at the top of his class. This book was sent home to him and he was told to read 2 chapters per day. I thought the first 4 chapters were fine until I got to chp. 5. I was appalled that you had the one of the characters in the story named Emily calling the teacher names(page33). Also in the chapter she was calling her teacher Mrs. Miller the Killer, Mrs Miller the killer gorilla. She called a girl ugly too. I am 33 years old and back in my time these books would have been fine. Seeing all of the violence today, we should be encouraging our kids not to call names etc. By reading this book you are encouraging students to disrespect adults and their peers, by calling them names which could eventually envoke violence. Most parents try hard to teach their children to respect everyone. Not call them names and disresepct adults or their peers. This story did neither. I would hope that you will relook at what you are writing and help encourage positive thinking in our children. We all know that children say alot of things but you are encouraging negative thoughts into them by printing things like this. I spoke with my son's teacher and explained that I know the teachers can't read every book but that I will continue to help ensure that my child or any other child not read things that are published like this, by making them aware of it. My sons teacher will not be reading the books published by Patricia Reilly Giff to her students and was glad I brought it to her attention. I will also be talking to the principal about these books. If you can I would like a response to my review.