GOONEY BIRD AND THE ROOM MOTHER
by Lois Lowry & illustrated by Middy Thomas
The irrepressible second grader returns, as flamboyant as ever, to offer more outrageous outfits, “absolutely true” yarns and such useful vocabulary words as “ennui” and “underestimate.” All the while, she’s wangling the role of Squanto in the Thanksgiving Pageant by recruiting a mysterious Room Mother, and also helping her gentle teacher Mrs. Pidgeon keep a roomful of rambunctious classmates on task with the pageant preparations. Larger than life and with a heart as big as her personality, Gooney Bird Greene will elicit gales of laughter, along with sighs of appreciation, from Suzy Kline and Junie B. Jones fans—as well as their parents—in this second winning, tongue-in-cheek outing. (Fiction. 7-9)