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Up

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Daniel was tired of being little. Mouse! They'd been calling him that since he was born. He hadn't used to mind it, even liked it once, but not anymore. He poked at some crackers on the table. "Someday I'll be so strong," he mumbled. "Someday . . ."

And then it happened. Something so strange, Daniel wasn't sure he could believe his eyes. One little cracker trembled for a second, then lifted up off the table. Not much. Not even an inch. Then, just as suddenly, it dropped right back down. Daniel blinked. Had that really happened? How? Had he done it?

Up is the story of an ordinary boy with an extraordinary talent, a talent no one knows about but him. Can Mouse really lift things off the ground? Or is it enough that he believes he can? Once again Jim LaMarche has mixed the magical with the everyday to create a book that stretches our imaginations and our dreams.

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  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 16, 2006
      LaMarche (The Rainbabies
      ) gives his hero just one, strictly limited magical power. Daniel discovers that he can raise things off the ground by looking at them, but "never back and forth. Just up. And that, not much." The youngest son of a fisherman whose livelihood requires strength, he resents his nickname, "Mouse," and chafes at being left home while his brother helps on the boat. But once Daniel realizes he has lifted an oyster cracker with his will alone, he spends hours perfecting his new skill. The story unfolds in a series of cinematically paced scenes. LeMarche shows Daniel close-up as he practices on progressively heavier objects, then provides readers with a big smile—a spread of Daniel's dad asleep in the living room, a newspaper across his lap, looking just like any other napping dad, except for the fact that he's hovering inches above the sofa. When a whale is beached near their home, the boy's gift frees the whale and wins Daniel a place on his father's boat. LaMarche's power to draft and tint his compositions appears almost casual; there's nothing, it seems, he can't draw. He depicts all the people and objects in the book, whether on the ground or suspended in mid-air, with the same enthusiastic objectivity. This matter-of-fact quality contributes to the story's magic. Ages 3-8.

    • School Library Journal

      October 1, 2006
      PreS-Gr 3-Once again, LaMarche laces workaday reality with a little bit of magic. Daniel longs to join his father and older brother on the family fishing boat, but every day they leave him behind to help his mother instead. Between Michaels taunts and the whole familys condescending use of the pet name Mouse, Daniel finds himself in an especially defiant mood during lunch one afternoon. Someday Ill be so strong, he mutters, and, fueled by the sheer force of his will, an oyster cracker hops from the surface of the table in agreement. Delighted and surprised, the boy quietly cultivates his strange new talent, and soon he graduates from bathtub toys and fishbowls to much bigger, heavier objects. Levitation is a neat trick, but Daniel figures its not really that usefuluntil the day a whale beaches itself on the shore and he gives it the boost it needs to ease back out to sea. The soft acrylics capture the low light, palpable chill, and blue-gray color scheme of Daniels fishing village. This is an inspiring and (yes) uplifting title about pursuing ones own talents and possibilities."Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC"

      Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      November 15, 2006
      LaMarche, the illustrator of Laura Krauss Melmed's " Rainbabies" (1992) and other books, creates his own magical tale in this beautifully illustrated picture book. Daniel wishes he was bigger and stronger, not just a little boy left behind when his father and his older brother set out in their fishing boat. After discovering that he can lift objects upward just by concentrating, he secretly practices his new skill, gradually lifting larger and heavier things. Still, his secret power seems rather useless until the fishermen discover a beached whale, and Daniel makes it possible to save it. Children will warm to Daniel and appreciate his feelings of inadequacy, his approach to his magical power, and his final acceptance as a fisherman. Drawn in softly shaded colored pencils warmed with watercolor washes, the scenes seem to glow with their own magic. As a small boy who accomplishes a great thing, Daniel lives the dream of many young children.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)

    • The Horn Book

      January 1, 2007
      Daniel feels left out because he's too little to go fishing with his brother and dad. On a particularly mopey day, he discovers a talent for levitating objects, which later enables him to move a beached whale back into the ocean. The expansively meticulous acrylic-wash and colored-pencil art add to the dreamlike feel of the story.

      (Copyright 2007 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:3
  • Interest Level:K-3(LG)
  • Text Difficulty:0-2

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