Isabella's Above-Ground Pool [Hardcover]

Alice Mead (Author), Maryann Cocca-Leffler (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 7 and up

"I won't share 'cuz it's not fair!" is nine-year-old Isabella
Speedwalker-Juarez's motto. It's all because she's stuck in a room
with her toddler brother, Dozer. Mom says Izzy has to adapt to
Granny's tiny trailer, where they've just moved because money
is tight and Mom is worried about losing her job at the gum
factory. Izzy knows what will make everything better - an
above-ground pool. She'll swim in it for hours, and she won't
share it with anyone, not even her new classmates or her friend
Deborah Nibblebitz-Fifer. With help from Zachary O'Toole, the
neighborhood handyman - and from Deborah - Izzy plans to
hold a car wash to raise money. But when things finally start
to go her way, a tornado damages the neighborhood, and Izzy
begins to rethink her motto.

Sparkling illustrations and a large dose of warmhearted humor
make Isabella's dilemma - and change of heart - easily
identifiable to young readers everywhere.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4 Nine-year-old Isabella Speedwalker-Juarez faces many adjustments now that she is living in her grandmother's mobile home and sharing a room with her two-year-old brother, Dozer. Her mother's hours have been cut at her job, causing additional financial difficulties. In her frustration, the third grader creates a personal motto: I won't share 'cuz it's not fair! To make matters worse, the pool that she has been promised is in jeopardy of being sold after being on layaway for over a year. Isabella is desperate to get the 200 dollars to pay for it but compromises her motto and her earnings after setting up a neighborhood car wash and donating the money to a classmate whose home was destroyed in a tornado. Bold and resourceful, she succeeds in another money-making plan, using her creativity and the help of a classmate to secure her pool. A lesson on friendship and sharing from her handyman neighbor foretells that giving makes you richer. Isabella's spunkiness and determination to get what she wants provide a number of small morals, and, indeed, she grows a great deal. Readers will enjoy the true-to-life school and family situations. Quirky, full-page cartoon illustrations show Isabella and just about everyone else with string-bean necks and limbs. A short chapter book with an important message. Jennifer Cogan, Bucks County Free Library, Doylestown, PA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 2-4. "I won't share 'cuz it's not fair" is nine-year-old Isabella Speedwalker-Juarez's motto, and given her current family situation (she, her mom, and her toddler brother have just moved into her grandmother's trailer), one can hardly blame her. Her one wish is for an above-ground swimming pool, but family finances are tight, and Mom can't promise that she will have the funds to pay for the pool before the store's owner sells it to someone else. Isabella comes up with a couple of successful moneymaking ideas, but when a tornado hits their Texas town, destroying a classmate's roof, she feels uncomfortable keeping the money for herself. Isabella comes across as a credible sympathetic character, despite her flaws, and her transformation into a more mature and likable child is handled without becoming didactic. Several side characters are also well developed, making for an entertaining story. Consider this as a read-aloud, especially where character education is emphasized. Kay Weisman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); First Edition edition (April 18, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374336172
• ISBN-13: 978-0374336172
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,828,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I had an unusually healthy childhood-sailing across the ocean on a steamship at age 7, visiting England,Scotland, and Norway, and playing endlessly with my dollhouse, which perhaps eventually lead to writing many books for children. Because I live in a refugee resettlement city Portland, ME, I wrote about displaced kids from war areas, Sudan, Kurdistan, and Kosovo. I was also an art teacher. The book, Soldier Mom, now 20 years old, was written during the first Gulf War, when we suddenly used a "reserve" army instead of an enlisted one. I had two active sons, dogs, rabbit, chameleon, hamster and later assisted 40 Kosova high school students. I loved gardening, painting, reading. But suddenly began to hurt everywhere, falling, weak. Nothing helped.I had to leave my job as an art teacher but was still able to write.
Nearly twenty years (plus a bout with severe cancer) into feeling weak, I now know I have Myasthenia Gravis, a neuromuscular disease that affects your eyes, breathing, endurance and speech.
I still write, paint, sing, practice my standup comedy, and take photographs. Really nothing inside me has changed at all. I fight to improve, laugh over the silliness of ordinary life, and am curious about all sorts of things.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Why share? It's not fair!, April 18, 2009

By 

Alice James - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Isabella's Above-Ground Pool (Hardcover)

Grumpy Isabella has to share a bedroom with her toddler brother. She hates sharing and dreams of having a swimming pool of her own that no one else can use. She finally saves enough money just as a tornado hits their tiny Texas town and a classmate's bedroom is ruined. Should she chip in and help? Great for class discussions on sharing, name-calling, arguing and making up afterwards. Isabella can get herself into more scrapes than a three toed armadillo! Funny illustrations!