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Summary
Summary
Sage has misheard and misunderstood one of Mrs. Page's weekly vocabulary words. Her error leads to a humbling catastrophe: a momentous tragedy, in front of the entire class. Can Sage turn her vocabulary disaster: an event bringing great misfortune, into a triumph: a true success?
Anyone who has ever been daunted: discouraged or disheartened, by a mere word in the dictionary will cheer wildly: in a manner lacking all restraint, as Sage transforms embarrassment into victory in Debra Frasier's touching story of loving--and mistaking--our glorious language.
Author Notes
Debra Frasier created the illustrations for this book from what she found in her fifth-grade daughter's desk-markers, notebook paper, pencils, glue, and scissors. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Frasier (On the Day You Were Born) goes back to school for this labored picture book about a girl's classroom gaffe. When Forest ("Forest is not a thicket of trees. Forest is a boy. A sick boy") coughs and sneezes "all over her desk and pencils," fifth-grader Sage catches a cold and must stay home from Webster School, missing Vocabulary Day. She phones her best friend to procure the week's word list, but misunderstands the last entry: she jots down "Miss Alaineus" instead of "miscellaneous." The error causes Sage big embarrassment when she returns to class, but her understanding mother helps her find the "gold" in her mistake. Frasier sticks closely to her theme, penning a wordy text riddled with vocabulary definitions ("I was devastated: wasted, ravaged"). This may amuse teachers but will likely wear thin on youngsters. And though the author believably captures Sages's feelings, a meandering story line slows the proceedings. The book's unusual design features purposely childlike but unappealing cut-paper collages composed of lined notebook paper colored with markers. A border on each page contains one hand-lettered line of Sage's extra-credit assignment, and an endnote scrapbook section offers suggestions for a school Vocabulary Parade. All ages. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Home sick from school, Sage gets her vocabulary homework over the phone from a friend, but she can't understand why her teacher put a proper name--Miss Alaineus, as she hears it--on the vocabulary list. Miss Page's classroom is stimulating, but Sage's account of her blunders and triumphs is forced. The collage artwork is overly bright and frenetic. From HORN BOOK Spring 2001, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Gr. 3^-5. Frasier, author of On the Day You Were Born (1991), offers a story in picture-book format for older readers. When fifth-grader Sage mistakenly hears the word miscellaneous as Miss Alaineus and comes up with her own erroneous definition, she is mortified to hear the teacher and the entire class laugh. She manages to turn their amusement to her benefit, though, when she appears in the schoolwide vocabulary contest as Miss Alaineus and wins a gold trophy for "The Most Original Use of a Word in the Tenth Annual Vocabulary Parade." Frasier deserves her own trophy for most original use of school supplies, since, according to the dust jacket, she made the illustrations from "what she found in her daughter's fifth-grade desk--no fancy art supplies; just markers, notebook paper, pencils, glue, and scissors." Using bright, solid-colored papers as well, she creates a series of large-scale, brightly colored collages that resemble a grade-school student's artwork, but with a more advanced sense of design. Although some children will be put off by the picture-book format, fans of Marissa Moss' Amanda's Notebook series may be open to this highly visual, first-person story. --Carolyn Phelan
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-5-This inventive picture book is a spelling book, a vocabulary book, a game book, and a costume book all rolled into one. Sage, a fifth grader who is home sick, phones a classmate to get her homework assignment. In a big hurry, Starr spells each word out except for the last one. Mistakenly, Sage writes what she hears, Miss Alaineus. When she returns to school, Mrs. Page holds a Vocabulary Bee and gives her the word miscellaneous. Her creative spelling and definition sends the class into gales of laughter, much to Sage's dismay. Resolution occurs 10 days later when she arrives at the Annual Vocabulary Parade dressed as "Miss Alaineus, Queen of all Miscellaneous Things." The student's ability to take her mistake and remake it into a positive experience is a valuable lesson. The text and marker illustrations are detailed and appealing, crammed full of fun ways to promote the study of the English language. There is a hidden-word game on the endpapers, an extra credit assignment using alphabetical sentences on every page, and pictures of Sage's Vocabulary Parade Scrapbook on the last three pages.-Karen Land, Greenport Public Schools, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Sage has the flu and receives her vocabulary list via a hurried phone call from her best friend, who spells all but the last word. Sage spells the unfamiliar word as best she can and compounds the problem by writing her own highly imaginative definition without the benefit of a dictionary. The hilarious error is discovered during a vocabulary bee and she is devastated, ruined, finished. The format of this enchanting book is ingenious. Words are defined within the text and as part of the colorful illustrations. Frasier (Out of the Ocean, 1998, etc.) uses pencil and markers on notebook paper to create a complete record of Sages vocabulary disaster and ensuing triumph. A border of sentences that Sage writes for another assignment provides a subtext that explains her emotions as the plot unfurls. There is also an addendum in the form of a vocabulary parade Scrapbook. Even the end papers and the flyleaf are an integral part of the book. There are delightful surprises on every page of this charmer. It is sure to be a favorite that will be read again and again. (Picture book. 6-9)
