The World's Best Class Plant
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
An irresistible picture book about a boy and his classmates who long for a class pet, but discover the joys and rewards of nurturing a class plant.
Room 107 has a cockatiel. Room 108 has a chinchilla. Even the Art Room has a bearded dragon. But in Room 109, Arlo's classroom, there is a plant. A mostly green, hardly growing, never moving plant. Even though it doesn't squeak, whistle, or whimper, Arlo’s teacher says the plant is “more than enough excitement for us.” But what could possibly be exciting about a plant?
One day, Arlo decides to name the plant Jerry. Something about naming the plant makes it more exciting. As the class learns to take care of Jerry, he starts to grow . . . greener and longer and twistier. And before long it's clear that something amazing has taken root in Arlo's classroom.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A "mostly green, hardly growing" spider plant provides classroom 109 with a lesson about keeping an open mind in this amiable botanical picture book by Vernick and Garton Scanlon. Student Arlo, portrayed with tan skin, feels disappointed that his teacher insists on flora for a class pet, but the whole class's perception of the potted pet's merits shifts with the bestowal of a name: Jerry. Soon, everyone is wild about the leafy subject, and Bontigao's realistically cartooned digital art playfully demonstrates the kids' growing care and fascination, building to a festive schoolwide Jerry Appreciation Day. As the year progresses and then wraps up, the teacher (whose name has meaningfully shifted for Arlo from "Mr. Boring" to "Mr. Perfect") offers a fitting send-off, and the narrative concludes by jumping forward to the next school year's classroom, where Arlo's growth is tested by another unlikely "pet." The child's transformation from disengaged to open-minded offers an encouraging picture of students blooming intellectually and emotionally through care. Plant info concludes. Ages 3–7.
