Big Bob and the Winter Holiday Potato is a book in Scholastic’s Hello Reader! Series. It is a level 3 book targeted for students in grades one and two. Among books in the extensive series are “Ballerina Dreams”, Big Bob and the Magic Valentine’s Day Potato”, “A Girl Names Helen Keller”, “Monster Manners”, “Big Bob and the Thanksgiving Potatoes,” and “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Bully”.
Preceding the title page is a letter addressed to family members by reading specialist. Francie Alexander. She points out the roles of sight words, phonic decoding, picture interpretation and text clues in the reading process. She shares a list of very comprehensive and useful activities for before, during, and after reading. I’ve seen such lists from so-called specialists that are gobbledygook. Alexander’s suggestions are sensible and pertinent.
Spudopsis
Mr. Salami, the second-grade teacher who used to be a deep-sea diver until he got too fat for his suit, is talking to the class about the winter holidays. Big Gloria and Big Bob volunteer to write the class holiday play. Big Gloria thinks that Santa Claus is a judgmental, scary figure who breaks into houses. Because of her Claus-thugphopia, she prefers to write a play about Potato Claus, a Claus who rings the doorbell and lets kids choose a present from The Big Book of Gifts whether or not they’ve been good or bad.
Mr. Salami likes the play written by Bob and Gloria. Tina Tiny, Billy Thimble, Big Bob, Big Gloria, and Mr. Salami will perform the play for the class with Mr. Salami playing the part of Potato Claus.
Potato Claus rings the doorbell and is greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Creamedcorn. Potato Claus wishes everyone a “Happy Christmas, Kwanzaa, Chanukah, Winter Solstice, and also local and regional winter holidays and celebrations.” Mrs. Creamedcorn offers to share some potato pancakes with him. From the Great Book of Gifts Elvis chooses potato skates and Francesa chooses a potato cycle.
Potato Claus gives everyone a bag of chips, expresses his love to everyone, and takes his leave..
The play ends and the actors take their bows.
My Take
Bob and Gloria are ever the nonconformists in this enjoyable four book series, and Mr. Salami is their nonconforming ploy. Since he swims upstream against the current, Mr. Salami could just as well have been named Mr. Salmon.
Some of the lines in the book are deliciously refreshing though perhaps meaningless to some younger readers. When Mr. Salami asks Gloria why he should allow Gloria to break tradition by writing about Potato Claus, she responds,” Because if you don’t let us write about Potato Claus, you will deny our right to self-expression.” That’s a perfectly aimed zinger!
This is a kids’ book, but I found it very amusing and entertaining. After the children choose their gifts, Potato Claus tells them “They will be delivered to you by Unified Parcel Service in seven to ten working days.” I really enjoyed the deadpan, dry humor of lines like this. Pinkwater cleverly and skillfully introduces the commonplace in uncommon context.
In the two books of the series I’ve read previously, Bob wasn’t portrayed as being so big. In two of the drawings, he looks like a Mr. Salami clone wearing the orange and yellow striped shirt from Big Bob and the Halloween Potatoes.
Some of the more difficult words for younger readers might be: salami, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, customs, police, deny, regular, personal, capital, Francesca, celebrations, deserve, judge. Most words are repeated often and in context to aid in decoding and understanding.
I like the continuity and development of the characters in a series. The characters, by all means, do not take on complex personas, but the reader knows them well enough to anticipate their words, actions, and motives, and is not disappointed when they are true to form.
Jill Pinkwater’s graphics again are perfectly appropriate for this storyline, appearing to have been drawn by a very talented youngster. The faux immaturity of the illustrations give them a charming and endearing quality. Depictions of Potato Claus and the potato presents are absolutely fabulous and laugh out loud hilarious.
Anyone who enjoys going against the grain, disagreeing with the crowd, painting with different strokes should get this book and enjoy its unleashed silliness.
The Author
Daniel Pinkwater of Memphis, Tennessee, was born in 1941 and attended Bard College. He has authored mostly children’s books and occasionally comments on National Public Radio. Pinkwater has illustrated some of his books, but his later books have been illustrated by his wife Jill. Many of his books are about social misfits who find themselves in strange situations.
~ Reading level: Ages 4-8
~ Paperback: 32 pages
~ Publisher: Cartwheel (November 1, 2001)
~ Language: English
~ ISBN: 0439042437
~ Dimensions – 9 inches by 6 inches
Recommended:
