Customer Reviews

Zoom!

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My daughter adores this book! She checked it out of the school library so many times the librarian asked me if she would consider reading something different. I decided to purchase her own copy to avoid conflicts. She reads it constantly. I adore the fact that Robert Munsch has the foresight to reflect real life children in his books. The star of this story is a little girl in a wheelchair. As soon as I see Robert Munsch as the author of a book, I know that we are in for a great story with good humor and the story will take us on a fun ride. My daughter knows this too. Keep up the great work!

You don't have to know anything about disabilities to enjoy this book. And although it's a little text-heavy for his age, my barely three year old grandson loves it because the fun style, humor, and lively action hold his attention. It's great!

You might expect a book about a girl in a wheelchair to have some socially correct message -- something about how the "differently abled" are people, too, so we should all be nice to them. Or maybe how we should try to imagine life from their perpective, so we can count our blessings. Yada yada yada.

So it's refreshing that "Zoom!" doesn't try any of that. Rather, it simply uses a girl's need for a wheelchair as the basis for a fun story. The girl, Lauretta, wants a FAST wheelchair, and when she gets one, a series of fast-paced scenes ensue. More than most kids books, "Zoom!" has ACTION.

My kids, now 4 and 5, never ask, "Why is she in a wheelchair?" or anything like that, they just accept that she is. They love this story for its lively story and colorful, expressive, pictures. It's fun to read out loud, with "sound effects" built into the story like "Blam! Blam! Blam!" and "Zooooooooooooom!"

Once I saw a Munsch book that dealt with a child in a wheelchair, I just had to get it for my daughter. We just got her first wheelchair and it was a great book to not only have her look at the pictures, but to read to other friends and family that see her in her chair and I see they are curious about it. It was a fun book and it's great to see a book out there that shows children with a disability having fun. I'm sure once she outgrows the wheelchair she has now, she will want a super fast one just like the girl in the book! Umm, thanks. :)

Kids will love the fast paced action of this story. Instead of suggesting that Lauretta is "confined" to a wheelchair, as so many authors unfortunately do, Munsch recognizes the sensational independence that the wheelchair brings to this spunky young girl. Highly recommended for all!

I think any Robert Munsch book is a winner! You can't go wrong with Munsch! I recommend all the Munschworks collections (each volume contains 5 stories) and anything else by Robert Munsch; he is so smart, clever, witty, entertaining, funny, creative and just plain amazing! This book is particularly popular in our family because my wife uses a motorized wheelchair. We all like to think that Lauretta (the girl in the story) is "mommy" as a little girl. "Mommy" still likes to go fast and the kids like it too!
Zoom! shows that a kid who uses a wheelchair is just like any kid who wants to have fun! Zoom! also shows that a book with a character using a wheelchair does not need to have a blatant message on disability. A great, fun story!

Recently, I learned that the character Lauretta in the story is based an actual girl named Lauretta Reid from Ontario. Lauretta uses crutches most of the time and a wheelchair for.long distances. Zoom! came from a combination of Lauretta's request for "a story about a little girl who walks with crutches and uses a wheelchair" and a story idea from a student named Grant; he wanted to be in story about a kid who got a new bicycle that was so fast he got a speeding ticket. Grant (now in his 20's) gladly gave up his role in the story and we have Zoom!

Unfortunately, Zoom! is currently out of print and the publisher (Scholastic) has given no information about when the book will be reprinted. There are a few used copies available online but they are pricey! And at this point, I will honestly admit that I am the one who bought all the reasonably priced copies I could find - and in my search for copies I learned the story behind Zoom! You can read the whole story and see pictures of the real Lauretta at www.robertmunsch.com . I hope in the near future new copies of Zoom! will be available. Feel free to visit the Scholastic website and write a comment requesting that Zoom! be reprinted - I did!

As with all the Robert Munsch books we own, my son frequently picks this one for reading. It is silly and always makes him laugh.

This summer I volunteered as a story reader at a children's museum. While doing research for books about wheels, I found this amazing story. Immediately I said "THIS IS ANNIE!" I called her up that day and said "I can't wait until Christmas! I just found your Christmas present!" How hard it was waiting, but she is so hard to get the perfect gift for that I wasn't going to waste that opportunity. Sometimes though I would have little doubts about whether she'd like it. I didn't want it to be like "hey, since you're in a wheelchair, here's a book about a girl in a wheelchair." But it was SO Annie! Then I would think "Well, maybe she's outgrown that "need for speed" thing, and it's too childish a book for a 32-year-old. Most of the time though, my doubt was just "It's so HER that surely she has already read it by now."

Well, Christmas finally arrived, and all my doubts were unfounded. After she opened it up I read it out loud to her (just because I love story-reading, and you're never too old to be read to). She had never seen the book before, never even heard of it. She, and her entire family agreed that it was as if the book was written just for her. By the last couple of pages she was laughing so hard that I had to read louder so that she could still hear me. I was worried that she might hyperventilate--really. Lorretta's last words always bring the biggest laugh, (or so you think), until you turn the page, and the final picture brings an even bigger one.

Well written. Very funny illustrations. Now I want a copy for myself. Maybe next Christmas.

Love the book... hard to find it, so getting it on the internet has been my best option. The book arrived in excellent condition. Good price. Great book! Thank you!

If you want to have children thoroughly entertained and sensitive to wheel chair bound children this is a must read