Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster
by Debra Frasier
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Book Summary Information
Author: Debra FrasierBrand: Sandpiper
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-01
ISBN: 0152060537
Number of pages: 40
Publisher: Sandpiper
Book Reviews of Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster
Book Review: Everyone can enjoy it.
Summary: 5 Stars
Miss Alaineus: a vocabulary disaster by Debra Frasier
I had expected a collection of riddles. "This is a story!" I exclaimed as I opened it, and I began to read it aloud to my Korean friend. I had bought it to help her with English. I couldn't stop reading. It took me about 20 minutes to read the whole thing aloud, with pauses for laughter. This is a wonderful, funny book. My friend took it up to her room. Later she told me, "I couldn't find Miss Alaineus in the dictionary." Many words are defined in the book, including and especially the word miscellaneous. Someone mentioned double meanings, but the double meanings are the names Ms. Frasier gives to the characters in the story, and all of them are defined immediately. This is one of the funniest books I have ever read. It's clearly meant for schools, but everyone can enjoy it.
Summary of Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster
Sage has misheard and misunderstood one of Mrs. Page's weekly vocabulary words. Her error leads to a humbling catastrophe: a momentous tragedy, in front of the entire class. Can Sage turn her vocabulary disaster: an event bringing great misfortune, into a triumph: a true success?
Sniffling and coughing through a week at home with a cold, Sage (one who shows wisdom, experience, judgment") misunderstands one of Mrs. Page's vocabulary words in the homework assignment, and the resulting embarrassment in front of her fifth-grade class leaves her "devastated: wasted, ravaged. Ruined: destroyed. Finished: brought to an end." Miss Alaineus is not, as Sage determined in her "defective and delirious" mind, "the woman on green spaghetti boxes whose hair is the color of uncooked pasta and turns into spaghetti at the ends." Sage slumps home after the vocabulary bee fiasco, to her mom's comforting, if seemingly impossible words: "There's gold in every mistake." Fortunately, and as always, mothers know best.
Debra Frasier (author-illustrator of On the Day You Were Born) has created a masterpiece of clever wordplay in her hilarious and poignant story of the exquisite pain of schoolgirl mortification. One sentence using vocabulary words from A to Z runs along the bottom or side of each page ("Obliterate me, send me to oblivion--no one could outdo my stupidity"). Not just for word-worms, virtually any kid will identify with the occasionally confusing world of learning, and be reassured by the happy conclusion. Frasier's youthful artwork was inspired by her daughter's fifth-grade desk. "No fancy art supplies; just markers, notebook paper, pencils, glue, and scissors." The result is eminently inviting for grade-school children. (Ages 8 to 12) --Emilie Coulter
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