Gotcha! [Hardcover]

Gail Jorgensen (Author), Kerry Argent (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up | Grade Level: P and up

About to cut her birthday cake, Bertha Bear is distracted by a big, black, beastly fly who buzzes in her ear, flies up her nose, walks on her pie, and dive-bombs the cake before Bertha retaliates with a bear-sized swat.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 1. In this cumulative adventure, a big, black fly invades Bertha Bear's outdoor birthday bash and dive-bombs her seven-layer cake. She tries to swat him, and he leads her on a merry chase over the countryside. En route and by mistake, she swats an indignant camel, crocodile, stork, and tortoise, and each joins the pursuit. Circling back to the party site, Bertha placates the angry animals with pieces of cake, and the fly once again zooms saucily by. Huge, action-filled, pen-and-ink and watercolor pictures follow the odyssey with humor and verve as the emphatic text swoops up and down across the page. A lively and entertaining read-aloud.?Patricia Pearl Dole, formerly at First Presbyterian School, Martinsville, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Ages 3^-6. It's one thing when a "beastly black fly" starts buzzing around birthday bear Bertha's head. It's quite another when it dive-bombs her gorgeous cake. Then big, clumsy Bertha springs into action, becoming a pest herself as she swats and stomps, leaps and lurches after the fly. She is ignorant of the ruckus she's causing until she finds her way back to the field where the chase began--and comes face-to-face with the angry critters she stomped on during her wild chase. This is just the sort of slapstick humor that children like, and the comedy is nicely carried through in both text and art. Onomatopoeias make the simple text great for reading aloud, and Argent's freewheeling style is perfect for depicting Bertha's uninhibited leaps across landscapes concealing animals ripe for being disturbed. And what about that pesky fly? It just keeps buzzing along. A satisfying story. Stephanie Zvirin

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Inc. (April 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590962086
• ISBN-13: 978-0590962087
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 10.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,892,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best children's book yet, August 7, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gotcha! (Hardcover)

This is the best children's book I have seen to date. It is the perfect combination of text to picture ratio, theme repetition, and familiar animals, with the opportunity for sound effects/creativity in story reading, that keeps kids one to six years old enthralled. Even 18 month olds will start reciting the catch phrase, "Gotcha!", along with you. A definite winner.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of fun, May 1, 2000

By 

saliero (NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gotcha! (Hardcover)

A fun slapstick frolic as Bertha chases a beastly black fly. The words are fun and playful, the illustrations happy and well-realised, fully integrated into the story. In the best picture books the illustrations ARE part of the story, conveying much of the plot, motivations, and expressiveness.

This book is one of those. A lot of fun for shared reading aloud, or independent early reading.