Please Write in This Book [Hardcover]

Mary Amato (Author), Eric Brace (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2006 | Age Level: 7 and up | Grade Level: 2 and up

When a teacher leaves a blank book in the Writer's Corner for her students to find, with the instructions "Please Write in this Book," she hopes it will encourage her students to talk to one another in its pages. Lizzy is the first to find it and decides that only girls should write in it. But some of the boys have other ideas—like Luke, who writes that his name rhymes with puke. And Milton is sure they should stick to the facts—after all what if someone found it and drew conclusions based on fiction? Before long a great clash ensues. Written in the entries of each student, this epic classroom battle reminiscent of Harriet the Spy is sure to have readers laughing out loud.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2–4—Ms. Wurtz decides to encourage creative dialogue by leaving a blank notebook in her classroom's Writer's Corner so that students will "talk to each other." The only stipulations are to "have fun" and "sign your name," and she promises not to read it until the end of the month. As the children begin to express themselves, alliances and rivalries develop. Personalities are revealed: rule-maker Lizzy; her peacemaker sidekick, Yoshiko; class clown Luke; and organizer/self-proclaimed editor Milton contribute to the journal and illustrate their handwritten entries. As the boys' bathroom humor escalates against the girls' pleas to write only "nice things," a rebellion in words develops. After the journal is "kidnapped," the classmates realize that their writing has become hurtful, and Luke suggests that they all contribute to a story to end the month's entries without any hard feelings. This seemingly disingenuous tale is carefully planned. It is no surprise that Ms. Wurtz's idea to plant the journal in the Writer's Corner on August 31st will perhaps determine and improve her class's dynamics for the coming school year, in addition to giving her a sense of her budding writers' potential interrelationships. Although the children's adversarial issues and appropriately lame rhyming verse take up their focus at first, the classmates come together with their fictional rescue story in a well-meaning, satisfactory end to the story. Fans of Geronimo Stilton and Marissa Moss's "Amelia" notebooks (S & S) will enjoy this offering.—Lynne Mattern, Robert Seaman School, Jericho, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

When their teacher leaves a blank journal in the Writers' Corner, encouraging kids to "talk" to one another about anything they like, they start off with brief self-portraits in words and sketches, including bits of facts and nonsense. Lizzie tells her classmates to be nice, but she gets mad when the boys mock her and her friends with lots of talk about poop, snot, and stinky feet. Then a classroom war erupts, and Lizzie and her friend Yoshi hide the journal in the girls' bathroom--where the boys find it. In the end they apologize to one another, and together they write a story. They call it "Invasion of the Journal Snatchers," and even their teacher loves it. Grade-schoolers, boys and girls, will enjoy the slapstick and the farce, whether it's about worms that poop or kids acting crabby; too bad the story perpetuates the stereotype of the librarian who says "Shhh!" Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Hardcover: 97 pages
• Publisher: Holiday House (October 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823419320
• ISBN-13: 978-0823419326
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,440,074 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mary Amato is an award-winning children's book author, poet, playwright, and songwriter. Her books have been translated into foreign languages, optioned for television, produced onstage, and nominated for the children's choice awards in many states.www.maryamato.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 4th and 5th Grade students love this book!, October 28, 2009

By 

Global Library Lady "Tara" (Bangkok, Thailand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Please Write In This Book (Paperback)

We are a group of 4th and 5th graders at International School of Bangkok, and we loved Please Write in This Book. It was different from any other book we have read before---in a good way! It's unique because it's a notebook ,and yet it still has a storyline with funny and realistic characters. Things happen in this book that would really happen with kids, and this is what made it very fun and interesting to read. We feel that it's a phenomenal book, and we think that kids from 3rd grade to 6th grade would really love it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Please Read this Book!, March 20, 2007

By 

Jennie (metro DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Please Write in This Book (Hardcover)

This is a fun, lighthearted book about a class journal gone wrong.

Mrs. Wurtz leaves a blank notebook in the Writer's Corner for her students to find, with the rules to have fun and to sign your name to what you write. Feelings get hurt and rumors spread (but this is a kid's book, so it's mainly about how bad various people's feet stink) and the book almost gets taken away.

The entire story is just what has been written in the book, so various prospectives are told on class events and some are just alluded to. I think there may have been a lot more tears than just the ones mentioned.

We learn some lessons about teamwork and how not to solve problems and how easy it is to accidentally hurt feelings. Mainly though, it's fun to read the different fonts and see the different pictures the kids have drawn to compliment their writing, and even if Lizzy thinks he's mean, Luke (rhymes with puke) is pretty funny.

Fans of Kate Klise's Regarding the Fountain and the others in that series will like this.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cute book!, April 21, 2008

By 

Laura Madsen (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Please Write In This Book (Paperback)

I don't know if this book was actually written by students or not (and the author just compiled the children's stories), but if it was, it's the most ingenius collaboration of children's journal entries, ever. It's humorous, and it's great for adults and children (ages 7 and up, most likely) - not just kids!