Module 1 - Miss Smith's Incredible Storybook by Michael Garland

Bibliographic Information
Garland, M. (2003). Miss Smith’s incredible storybook. New York: Penguin Young Readers Group.

Summary

Zach thinks the year is going to be boring, just like every other year, until he meets his teacher Miss Smith.  The first day started out like every other until story time, when the storybook characters came to life.  The class first went into a pirate tale.  Every day after there was a new story to hear and new characters to meet.  One day Miss Smith was late getting to school, so the principal read a dragon story aloud from the storybook, but he left the room without finishing it and then Goldilocks and the Three Bears came out.  The Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and Alice also popped out of the book.  As the book was passed from child to child, new characters popped out.  Miss Smith returned and finished each story.  The storybook characters returned to the book and calm returned to the classroom.

Impressions

This was a really cute story.  Children will love seeing all of the different story book characters.  It would be a great story to use at the beginning of the school year.

Reviews

Zack's exciting new teacher has a magic storybook. When she opens it up and reads aloud, the characters pop out and bring the tales to life right before the students' eyes. But Miss Smith's book isn't for everybody, and when stuffy Principal Rittenrotten has to fill in for her one morning, the dragon, princess, and knight that materialize from the pages send him from the room in a panic. The only way to make them disappear is to finish their respective stories, but Zack's classmates keep beginning new ones instead, until the school is overrun with Goldilocks, the Mad Hatter, and other such characters, seen vividly cavorting across the full-page spreads. Fortunately, Miss Smith shows up just in time and returns them to the safety of the book's pages, leaving the principal confused and her students forever in her debt. The lively, bright illustrations have a glossy, computer-generated quality that young readers will appreciate. Miss Smith wears a black leather jacket and a lapel button advertising "The Clash," and has a punk-rock hairdo. A satisfactory addition to most collections.

Threadgill, Catherine. (2003, October 1). [Review of the book Miss Smith’s incredible storybook]. School Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.flr.follett.com/search?SID=afa886f3f2c4df837f414fc47c050518

A special teacher can make books come to life—literally. Zack already suspects his new teacher will be different (she sports spiky red hair and a kid-pleasing attitude), but it takes being read aloud to from Miss Smith’s Incredible Storybook (2003) to guarantee that this will be an exceptional year. Michael Garland’s lively text and slick animation-style artwork depict the incredible happenings as easy-to-recognize literary characters spring off the pages to cause all manner of mayhem.

Fleishhacker, Joy. (2009, September 1). Stories about Reading for Elementary Students [Review of the book Miss Smith’s incredible storybook]. Curriculum Connections – School Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6685533.html

Library Use

Librarians could use this book at the beginning of the school year to show children how books can come alive when you use your imagination!  I think it would bring about excitement in checking out books from the library.