Customer Reviews

Gooseberry Park

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
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Will this ice ever stop? Will Kona ever get to Stumpy? Gooseberry Park by Cynthia Rylant is about Stumpy a squirrel who is expecting babies. But soon after the babies are born an ice storm hits covering Gooseberry Park. Her best friend, Kona the dog, will risk the treacherous journey to save Stumpy and her babies. But is he too late or is Stumpy still alive.

Stumpy is a squirrel who likes to collect things. Stumpy is nice and is not very clean. She also is funny and a little bit of a smart alek. In the book she changes because she starts off as a collecting mother soon to be, at the end she is a mother with a curiosity about Gwendolyn and other Hermit Crabs. I think Stumpy is really cool because she really cares for Kona, Gwendolyn a hermit crab, Murray a bat, and her three babies Top, Bottom, and Sparrow.

As a school librarian, I am often looking for entertaining books to read aloud to my students. After my nine year old son finished this book, I scooped it up to read to fourth grade students at my school. All the children loved Murray, Kona and Stumpy, and laughed out loud at the trials and tribulations of these three engaging characters. It was wonderful to see my students so involved with a story and its characters - I had a captive audience each library period! Bravo to Cynthia Rylant for creating such a wonderful story and such lovable (and funny!) characters.

I used this in my 3rd grade class as a teacher read-aloud and the students loved it. It had characters that all students could relate to --whether it was the sense of humor and crazy antics of Murray,the bat,the heroic deeds of Kona,the labrador retreiver,the straight talk from Gwendolyn,the hermit crab or the motherly sweetness of Stumpy,the squirrel--all children of various learning abilities could enjoy the story. When Stumpy lost her children in an ice storm that toppled her tree, the children were interested in how she would get back to them. When Murray was caring for the babies in the basement, the students would laugh at the bat's appetite for junk food and television. They were delighted and so was I. A real pleasure to read.

I am a second grade teacher. I read this chapter book every year to my students during story time. We all love it. The characters are wonderful, real and funny. I would suggest it to any teacher in the primary grades.

I read this book in 3rd grade for a reader's tournament at my library. I love this book! It is so wonderful! I want to go and read it again, please read this book.. you'll love it!

I loved Gooseberry Park because it was very humorous, adventurous, and the characters are animals. Stumpy the squirrel has just had babies when something terrible happens. Will Kona and his friends be able to save Stumpy in time? Will Stumpy and her babies ever recover from this fateful incident? If you want to know the answers to these questions, read Gooseberry Park to find out.

I read this book to my 5 1/2 year old daughter in two sittings. She begged me to keep going long past her bed time. I couldn't wait to find out what happened either! We had a great read and can't wait to read more by the same author. We also had a good discussion about doing things for your friends and what that means.

I can hardly wait to read this book aloud at storytime. The humor was simple yet funny. Extremely fast read for the week before Christmas vacation.

I read this book when i was in the 3rd grade, now im a freshman in college and its still one of my favorite books.Its a good book,and anyone should be able to enjoy it no matter your age. I love all the characters and it evens features black and white drawings of different scenes throughout the book.

This is a beautiful, funny, sweet book with a wonderful canine hero. It's a kid's book, but adults can love it too.