Wednesday, May 1, 2013

BABYMOUSE: MAD SCIENTIST by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm

1.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Holm, Jennifer L. and Matthew Holm.  2011.  BABYMOUSE: MAD SCIENTIST.  New York, NY: Random House. ISBN 9780375865749


2. PLOT SUMMARY
Babymouse wants to do a science project for the science fair.  She decides to do her project on amoebas.  She discovers an amoeba that eats cupcakes and can talk.  She ends up getting 2nd place at the science fair on her amoeba science fair project. 

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Babymouse has an active imagination. She has many crazy daydreams like drinking a science experiment and becoming a giant.  Another daydream is that she travels to the moon in a giant cupcake lunar module.  Neil Armstrong’s words are changed to “that is one step for babymouse… one giant leap for…mold!”  It seems that the purpose of the book is to entertain through Babymouse’s zany, comedic adventures.  Children in middle school will relate to Babymouse and her adventures.   Just like many students, she has problems being late to her classes and dislikes having to work on her science fair project over the weekend. 

The book is a graphic novel and does not have a lot of words so it is a great book for older students who struggle with reading.  The only colors in the book are pink, black and white.  Towards the end of the story, the reader is introduced to Squish.  Squish is green and green is added to the book after Squish is introduced in the story.   The book’s use of pink, pink hearts around the page numbers and the fact that babymouse is a girl make this book more appealing to girls. 


4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Booklist:  “…then she discovers an amoeba named Squish.  The book introduces this new graphic-novel series character by snazzy use of the color green, which nicely counteracts the pink hues of the rest of the book.”

5. CONNECTIONS. 
* Students can create their own cartoon story and then share them with the class. 

*Other graphic novels:
Hale, Shannon.  RAPUNZEL’S REVENGE.  ISBN 9781599900704
Hale, Shannon.  CALAMITY JACK.  ISBN 9781599900766

Krosoczka, Jarrett.  LUNCH LADY AND THE PICTURE DAY PERIL.  ISBN 9780375870354



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