Naked Bunyip Dancing
Ages: 8–12
Pages: 208
List Price: $16.95
Cover: Hardcover
Published: 4/1/2008
ISBN: 1-59078-499-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-59078-499-0
A humorous look at the way one quirky teacher brings out the best in each of his students. Steven Herrick delves into the murky waters of a middle-school classroom, complete with a nerdy vegetarian teacher, Mr. Carey. What a crazy class! And what a funny, unpredictable year—the year of Naked Bunyip Dancing—when the students find out who they are, what they’re good at, and how to put on a fantastic show. The cast of characters includes Mr. Carey the Hairy, Billy the punk genius, J-man the rapper, Sophie the poet, Ahmet the soccer star, Anna the yoga master, Peter the boy with the talking bottom, Emily the ballerina, and others, each with a special talent. Mr. Carey introduces strange, new activities—from belly dancing to poetry jams—and the class responds with a passion for learning. The night of the class concert will undoubtedly be one of the best nights of their lives.
Awards
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Reviews
"The characters are fun (Peter is allergic to sports, and he farts even when the class does yoga), as are the angry insults (“uglier than a hippopotamus") and the emotional dramas (“Ring her and say I’m sorry?"). Decorated with occasional ink cartoons, including 24 small portraits of the kids, this book will be a good choice for readers’ theater and for creative-writing classes."
—Booklist
"This novel is a must-read for any young adult who seriously participates in poetic writing or merely expresses an interest in it. Students in upper elementary through middle school are likely to enjoy this novel the most. Recommended."
—Library Media Connection
"[A] quick, short novel that allows its readers to do more than the usual amount of imagining around and between the lines. Norling’s drawings in the manner of a twelve-year-old illustrator have quirky, cartoonlike flair."
—Horn Book
Reviewer Jeremy Rogers writes a review of Steven Herrick's
Naked Bunyip Dancing in the April/May 2008 issue of
Library Media Connection:
"This novel is a must-read for any young adult who seriously participates in poetic writing or merely expresses an interest in it. Students in upper elementary through middle school are likely to enjoy this novel the most. Recommended."
Reviewer Hazel Rochman writes a review of Steven Herrick's
Naked Bunyip Dancing in the April 15, 2008 issue of
Booklist:
"The characters are fun, as are the angry insults and the emotional dramas. Decorated with occasional ink cartoons, including 24 small portraits of the kids, this book will be a good choice for readers’ theater and for creative-writing classes."
A review of Steven Herrick's
Naked Bunyip Dancing appears in the May/June 2008 issue of
Horn Book Magazine, calling it:
“[A] quick, short novel that allows its readers to do more than the usual amount of imagining around and between the lines. Norling’s drawings in the manner of a twelve-year-old illustrator have quirky, cartoonlike flair."
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books features a review of
Naked Bunyip Dancing in its May 2008 issue:
“Using a by-now-familiar format of free-verse poetry that alternates among the voices of various students and a more collective class voice, Herrick manages to capture the sweet earnestness and unassuming wit of sixth-graders as they experiment with their identities, experience the agony and ecstasy of first like-like, and test the limits of their hip vegetarian teacher's sense of humor."
