Features
- Reading level: Ages 4-8
- Cover Type: Paperback with 32 pages
- Published by: Fitzhenry and Whiteside
- Edition: 1st Edition June 28, 2000
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1550415409
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1550415407
-
Book Dimensions:
8.5 x 5.4 x 0.2 inches
- Weighs: 3.5 ounces
From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-- Alice wakes up on her birthday to find a cyclops in her room. He is as surprised as she is, and the two attempt to send him home. After he makes a shambles of her birthday party, she takes him to the library where the librarian recites spells from a book of magic incantations. He disappears just as the men with the nets arrive. Alice closes her birthday with the giant's promise to return the following year. Kovalski's cheerful cartoons in bright pastel shades and tints create a cast of appealing-looking characters. The cyclops wears rubber flip-flops and a too-small T-shirt that doesn't cover his belly button. Alice is a skinny-legged little girl who can't keep her socks up. The librarian is the only adult to remain undaunted by the cyclops, gazing at him with interest. There are, however, weak spots in the text. Small Alice sleeps all night in her clothes on the living room sofa without her parents noticing, and they run away and leave her to deal with the giant on her own. The illustrations are amusing, but the story is less successful. --Ruth Semrau, Lovejoy School, Allen, TX
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Review
"Veteran illustrator Maryann Kovalski and experienced writer John Green combine their prodigious talents in Alice And the Birthday Giant, a fantastical tale of - well - a girl whose birthday party is crashed by a huge, hungry giant. Giants, according to both the Narnia Chronicles and Harry Potter series, are extremely pugnacious and ill-tempered. Not so with Alice_s friend. He_s a one-eyed goombah with a mustache the size and appearance of a motorized street-sweeper, flip-flops the size of large rafts and a belly that has to be seen to believed. After the giant frightens the guests from Alice_s birthday soiree - dad has gone in search of a very large net - Alice goes to the library (where else?) for information on how to get the giant back home. There are some funny moments as the librarian misfires - where is Hermione Granger when you need her? - but eventually everything turns out OK. Kovalski, who_s penned classics like The Wheels on the Bus and Rain, Rain and Green, whose familiar to us through his hilarious There_s a Dragon in My Closet, have a lot of fun with this one." - The Hamilton Spectator, Hamilton, Ontario
Excellent text is well supported by colourful pictures by renowned illustrator Maryann Kovalski. Alice_s birthday wish for SOMETHING REALLY BIG comes true. Enough surprises and happy, secure resolutions will thrill any 6-8 year old. Colourful and comic illustrations on every page are well matched to the controlled vocabulary and exciting story ensuring the beginner readers_ success. - ResourceLinks
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