Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub (Avon Camelot Book) [School & Library Binding]

Jamie Gilson (Author), Linda Strauss Edwards (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Avon Camelot Book

All year Hobie Hanson and his fellow 4th graders have waited for a substitute teacher. At last she arrives, green and trusting--a quick sink, 4B is sure. But Svetlana Ivanovich has staying power.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jamie Gilson has written sixteen books, all of them about children, most of them about children in school. And the elementary school where she gets many of her ideas is Central, which all three Gilson children attended. While Tom and Anne are now lawyers and Matthew a photographer, their mother still goes to Central School classes, notebook in hand, looking for stories.

She describes Central's cafeteria in Do Bananas Chew Gum?, its Spit Pit in Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub, and the contents of some of its fourth grade desks in Hobie Hanson, You're Weird. Central students have taught her how to sing "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells," how to chew a mint so it sparks in the dark, and how to play soccer on a field of mud.

She spent two weeks with the whole fifth grade class while, in a kind of total immersion, they studied the Western Movement. On the first day the boys and girls found out who they'd be married to for those two weeks. Then they took pioneer identities, joined a wagon train, chose supplies, decided whether to cross a rushing river at midnight, made pumpkin butter, dipped candles, and built mock fires with fake buffalo chips. They had a wonderful time--mostly. Jamie wrote a book about it: Wagon Train 911.

"It's true, though," she says, "that while Central is very special to me, every school is brimming with rich stories. I talk with children all over the country about my writing, and the one question they always ask is, 'Witt you put us in a book?' If I were there tong enough, I expect I could."

Jamie Gilson's professional life has always involved writing and communications. Formerly a teacher of junior high school speech and English, she was a staff writer and producer for Chicago Board of Education radio station WBEZ, a writer of Encyclopaedia Brittanica films, and continuity director for fine arts radio station WFMT. She was, for ten years, a monthly columnist for Chicago magazine.

Born in Beardstown, Illinois, Jamie Gilson spent her early years in small towns in Illinois and Missouri where her father worked as a flour miller. After graduating from Northwestern University School of Speech, she married Jerome Gilson, then a law student and now a trademark lawyer. They live within sight and sound of Lake Michigan in a suburb of Chicago.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• School & Library Binding
• Publisher: Tandem Library (December 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881035777
• ISBN-13: 978-0881035773
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,594,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun classic comes to life!, March 20, 2010

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub (Hardcover)

Jamie Gilson's THIRTEEN WAYS TO SINK A SUB will reach ages 8-12 with a classic story of Hobie and his fourth grade class, who gets a substitute for their regular teacher. They have all kinds of plans for the time - but they never counted on getting the strangest substitute teacher with her own special plans for the classroom! A fun classic comes to life!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This Book Was Very Fun, January 11, 2001

By 

Barb Doller (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub (Paperback)

This book was one of the best books I ever read. It is really funny. I think the author did a really good job writing the book. This book is not about a submarine. It is about kids trying to sink their substitute teacher. To sink is to make him/her cry. Then the sub tells them a secret this is her first time as a sub. They think they can sink her because she is a first timer. And they come close. They flood the room, change names, they even hit her with snowballs. Do they make her cry? Read the book and find out.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Find Out How to Sink Your Sub!, November 30, 2000

By 

*NSYNC Fan (Cleveland,OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub (Paperback)

You probably think this book is about submarine right? We'll you're thinking wrong. This book is about kids who try to make the substitute cry before the week is over. They mess up the chalkboard, they throw snowballs at her. Do they make her cry? If you want to find out you'll have to read the book.