About the Author

Allen Kurzweil is a prize-winning novelist, children's writer, inventor, and journalist. His work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including the New Yorker, the New York Times, Smithsonian, and Vanity Fair. He is a graduate of Yale University and the recipient of Fulbright, Guggenheim, and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Bret Bertholf is a painter, writer, musician, and the yodeling singer for Halden Wofford & the Hi Beams, an acclaimed traditional country/western band, as well as the coordinator of children's events at the Tattered Cover Book Store. The artist is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and lives in Denver, Colorado.

Reviews

Acclaimed adult novelist Kurzweil (The Grand Complication) enters the world of children's literature with a mix of mayhem and magic. Leon lives with his mother in "the finest one-star lodgings in the city"-a seedy hotel presided over by The Ice Queen (an "ancient ice maker" whose noise keeps Leon awake at night) and guests with unusual pets ("Poop-B-Gone" is a staple with the cleaning staff). His trepidation about fourth grade at the Ethical School (where "nimble fingers make for nimble minds") escalates when he meets the formidable Miss Cronheim. In addition to supersonic hearing (her ears resemble "giant mushrooms"), his new teacher wears a scary black cape with glass eyes for fasteners and has a positively medieval outlook on education that includes training the class in sewing (success is measured in "s.p.i." or stitches per inch). Is Miss Cronheim running a sweatshop? Things take a surprising turn when the school bully douses Leon's final project (a carefully crafted likeness of Miss Cronheim herself) with spit and it comes to life, allowing Leon to control his teacher's actions in voodoo-like fashion. Kurzweil smoothly juggles several subthemes, including Leon's run-ins with his overbearing classmate. But the layers of eccentricities seem forced at times, and combined with some structural problems (the magical doll doesn't show up until the second half), the book, though amusing, never quite takes off. Ages 8-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Gr 4-6-A comic story with a touch of wish-fulfillment fantasy. Leon lives in the rather wacky and seedy New York City hotel where his mother works. The Ethical School, which puts particular emphasis on handicrafts, presents a problem for him, as he is challenged in the area of fine motor skills. The villain of the piece is Leon's fourth-grade teacher, Miss Cronheim, who wears pantyhose the color of cooked liver and who has a curriculum based on the sewing of stuffed animals. In response to a threat that he may have to repeat the year, Leon sews a doll that is the "spitting image" of the teacher and by chance discovers that by manipulating it into different poses, Miss Cronheim follows suit as if in a trance. Leon and two friends then plot to get her to put a pair of her pantyhose over the head of the school bully. Kurzweil's humor is light and funny in relation to Leon's home life and friendships, but has more of an edge to it in the school-related scenes. The author handles the element of magic in a believable way. Less credible, however, is the speed with which his hero changes from being a "two stitches per inch" sewer to being capable of making a doll that looks like a human, even to the gnarls in the ears. If readers can suspend disbelief, they will enjoy the entertainment that Leon and his friends provide.-Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York City Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.