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Summary: Regarding the Fountains
Review: The University of Mississippi
Amy Gadd and Anna Holland Regarding the Fountain is a delightful read combining educational oppurtunities with a solid entertaining story. The book is centered around Sam N's fifth grade class. Mr. N's class is studying the history of their own town. They learn the town changed its name from Spring Creek to Dry Creek thirty years ago and that businesses in the town began drying up just as the creek dryed up. Principal Walter Russ is also battling for a new drinking fountain for the school. The president of the school board feels the old fountain can be repaired. The old fountain leaks terribly and leaves puddles on the floor. This leads to a few mishaps, even causing the principal of the school to slip and fall on the wet floor.
Flo Waters, a fountain designer, is commisioned to design a new fountain for the school. Flo begins to correspond with Mr. N's class to get their input on the fountain design. Mrs. Waters travels to many exotic and far away places doing research for the fountain. Throughout her travels, she keeps in constant contact with the students through letters. The children get to "see" the world and its art through these correspondences. Through the students' input, Flo gets new insights into their views and imaginations. Between them, the reader becomes exposed to many geographic areas and their cultures. The fifth graders use the information and artifacts Flo sends, along with their own research to write "The History of Dry Creek" and present it at the annual Dry Creek Days Celebration. Their presentation sheds some light on the town's water shortage and its origin. Ultimately this fifth grade class helps capture criminals and restore the community of Dry Creek.
Regarding the Fountain provides oppurtunities to teach history, geography, art, music, English, and Spanish to middle elementary school children. This book can be intergrated into many subject areas and is easy to read. The ending is a welcome surprise and the book is an excellent read for anyone above third grade.
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Summary: Why We Need More of Florence Waters
Review: These days it seems like lots of celebrities have decided to try their hand at writing books for kids. While some of them may do a fairly credible job, it is nice to know that there are truly professional authors like Kate Klise who really understand how to craft a story for young adults. Regarding the Fountain is highly entertaining, and the unique format, including some sensational illustrations along with the memos, news articles and phone messages,etc. makes our kids want to read more. Some may say that the plot should provide more details on how to get good government price quotes and deal with economic issues in Dry Creek in order to be more realistic. As Florence Waters would say, "Forgive me for saying so, but shame on you." Most people like this book just the way it is. There is plenty of time for kids to learn about all those things later, but for now, how about if we let them enjoy dreaming of designing their own chocolate syrup spewing fountains and other such impractical things that make being a kid remarkable. But then again, I guess some people also thought that there should be an engineering explanation in the Wizard of Oz for how a witch could fly around on a broom. And as for Florence herself, we could all use a little more of someone like her in our lives, someone who puts quality and art above profit, insists on personal interaction, and even knows how to respond to an innocent crush without hurting feelings. Seems like these are good lessons for us all, so I am anxiously waiting for the next book in this series - as I am sure many others are too.
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Summary: A Great Book!!!
Review: This is a great book!! The charecters names are funny like Sally Mander(get it- Sallamander) and Dee Eel(Deal) and a lot of the kids names are funny too. It is about a leaking fountain that needs to be fixed. The lady that will fix it has crazy ideas with the help of a fifh grade class. They begin to be friends even though they havent met her. But when the school board disagrees with the fountain... what will they do?
(Oh ya btw the city has no fresh water so will they get any???... read it to find out)
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