Product Description

It's springtime in Vermont, and strange happenings are afoot in the little town of Hamlet. The students at Joshua Fawcett Elementary School are busily planning their practical jokes for April Fool's Day, but their pranks fall flat when it is discovered that their beloved teacher, Miss Earth, has gone missing.
Has the mysterious creature that's lurking about town and stalking local farm animals made a meal of Miss Earth? Or is Mayor Grass, her esteemed fiancé, responsible? Miss Earth's students know that the clock is ticking and they must find the answer-and their teacher-before it is too late.
True to form, Gregory Maguire has added an uproarious installment to the Hamlet Chronicles, a tale packed with high humor and suspense that also touches on more serious themes of adolescence and family relationships.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #640673 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6–In this sixth installment in the series, the rivalry between the girls' club, the Tattletales, and that of the boys, the Copycats, continues, but their leaders, Thekla Mustard and Sammy Grubb, are not quite as enthusiastic as they were earlier in the year. Before long, Thekla finds herself deposed by an upstart member. When new student and outsider Thud Tweed decides it would be fun to make trouble for Miss Earth, he helps the girls play an April Fool's Day trick on the boys during class, and the teacher puts her foot down. She bans the clubs from school and assigns everyone into girl-boy pairs for the upcoming science fair. Meanwhile, the one remaining Flameburper (a mutant chicken-lizard hatched in the previous book) is growing at a rapid rate and is clearly distressed about something. Could it be the mysterious creature rumored to be lurking around town? Then, Miss Earth disappears, and all rivalries are set aside as the Tattletales and Copycats combine forces to find her. Although the book can stand alone, readers already familiar with the characters and their history will get the most out of it. The tongue-in-cheek humor, brisk pace, and snappy dialogue make for a lively and enjoyable read.–Terrie Dorio, Santa Monica Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 3-6. In this sixth installment in the Hamlet Chronicles, an April Fool's Day joke spins out of control, and beloved teacher Miss Earth disappears. Her students, including the faction of boys known as the Copycats, and the girls, who call themselves the Tattletales, set aside their fierce rivalries to unravel the frightening mystery of their missing teacher. Newcomers won't have trouble picking up the plot threads, and series fans will recognize all the familiar characters--among them, the flameburpers, fire-breathing, mutant chicken-lizards who end play a pivotal role in the high jinks. As always, Maguire layers his witty, absurd farce and spot-on portrayal of the social pecking order of middle-graders with larger questions about science, our threatened environment, and the uneasy relationship between species, be they gorillas, flameburpers, or boys and girls. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Customer Reviews

Your Child Will Become an Addict!
While I enjoy Maguire's novels for adults, I unknowingly caused my 9-year-old daughter to become an addict when I bought "Four Stupid Cupids" off of a Valentine's clearance shelf without taking note of the author. As a result, my daughter
has rapaciously consumed everything age appropriate that Maguire has produced. I am very fortunate to have avoided a battle of wills provoked by covetous glances at my copy of "Wicked" with the release of "A Couple of April Fools". My daughter can't put it down!