When Diane was teaching Second and Third Grades in elementary school, one of her favorite books to read aloud to her classes was Miss Nelson Is Missing by Harry Allard and illustrated by James Marshall. Miss Nelson, a wonderful teacher, has the worst class in the school. No matter what she tries, the students misbehave. One day, Miss Nelson doesn’t report for work. The class is elated…until the substitute teacher shows up: mean Viola Swamp. Viola Swamp cracks the whip and the students find themselves with extra homework and none of the fun activities they enjoyed with Miss Nelson. So the class decides to find Miss Nelson and beg her to return to their classroom.
The musical version of Miss Nelson Is Missing follows the plot. I especially enjoyed the performances of Lily Jones (Miss Nelson/Viola Swamp). Her Viola Swamp was very intimidating! This musical was held at the Theater of Youth (TOY) organization in downtown Buffalo. Most of the audience was kids (with parents and grandparents sprinkled in). There was a Q&A session after the one-hour musical and kids could take pictures with their favorite actors on the stage. A fun outing for all. Do you have a favorite kids book? GRADE: B+
This sounds awful, at least for adults.
My favorite kids book would probably be The Wind in the Willows or the Oz books.
My favorite kids book (for young kids) is Make Way For Ducklings. I discovered it on a trip to Boston. The friends we stayed with didn’t own a copy, just kept checking it out from the library, so we got one for them. I had one for myself for a long time.
Gag me with a spoon!
Bob, your grandchildren would love this!
Sounds like fun. Like Diane, Jackie was a big fan of MISS NELSON IS MISSING, as well as other books illustrated by (and in some cases, written by) James Marshall, like the George and Martha (two hippos who are good friends) books. There were two sequels to the book – MISS NELSON IS BACK and MISS NELSON HAS A FIELD DAY. Marshall’s drawings were delightful.
Jeff, MISS NELSON IS MISSING was one of the books Diane would read to her class each year. This musical version received an enthusiastic reception by the audience we saw it with.
Sorry, George, there’s about a gazillion kids books that are my “favorites,” but MISS NELSON IS MISSING is one of them. The book I keep going back to is FIRE AND STONE by Ursula Le Guin. I would read that to first grade classes every year and the kids and I would both get a kick out of it. I would hype up dragons before I started reading the story, then read the story in a calm, soothing voice; when it came to the part of the dragon’s cries, I would scream it our at the top of my voice (often disturbing the class next door). The kids would jump, startled, then laugh. They loved the story and they loved the dragon’s screeching. Also, whenever I read I would sit on the floor instead of a chair with the kids also on the floor in front of me; that was back when I was using two canes every day, so when the story was over the kids would rush to try to help me get up.
Maggie, when we lived in Massachusetts our go-to baby gift was a copy of MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS and a watercolor print of the ducklings statues in Boston Public Gardens. Often when we took our kids to look at the statues there would be one or more ducklings missing, most often from the end of the line so Ouack, Pack. and Quack were the most vulnerable. Invariably the missing ducklings would be found…until the next time.
Jerry, I’m going to have to reread FIRE AND STONE by Ursula LeGuin. I remember dragons but that’s about it.
When I worked in an elementary school library, MISS NELSON IS MISSING was a favorite. The librarian would read it to the kids at story time (doing different voices).
Deb, there’s a lot a good teacher could do with a book like MISS NELSON IS MISSING. Diane did voices when she read it, too. She used her “Don’t-Mess-With-Me” voice when playing Viola Swamp.
CHARLOTTE’S WEB
Deb, classic! And I love spiders, too!
Ew! Spiders! Stomp ’em all flat then use a blowtorch on the remains, I say.
Jerry, spiders eat bugs…and sometimes people.
Spiders are among my favourite animals!
We have a row of Thujas and last summer we marveled at the little spiders’ webs – the distance between the trees is more than a meter and they built such lovely webs, shining in the sun.
Anyway with the climate here in Hungary we have flies, mosquitos and wasps so any animal that helps reduce the number of these is welcome.