Ginger Pye

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Summary: Ginger Pye
Review: Ginger Pye is the story of two siblings, Jerry and Rachel Pye, and their very intelligent dog, Ginger. Jerry wants to study rocks when he grows up and Rachael wants to study birds like her father. The children are very inquisitive and worry about things constantly. This book is a suspenseful mystery. The mystery begins when Ginger is stolen. The children think that an unsavory character in a yellow hat stole him; they search all over town for their beloved puppy.
This book is witty and funny. The children ask strange things throughout the novel like whether New York or Boston is more important. I think this book would be great for any child; it kept my attention. This is definitely a book that I will read again.

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Summary: Awesome
Review: I read this to my children because it appears on some of the homeschool book recommendation lists. It was okay--the kids seemed to enjoy it. (They are 5-9.) The author describes events and places in painful detail and the story, in my opinion, lacks cohesion. There is a lot of extra that doesn't really add anything to the story. As an adult, I knew who had Ginger before she was taken, the clues were so obvious. We are reading Understood Betsy now, and I find that it has much more to offer.

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Summary: Meandering Tale is Missing its Star
Review: I read to my 5 & 7 year old boys every night. We rated the books that we read over the previous year, and each boy, independently put Ginger Pye at the very bottom of their ratings. "I would give it one star," says Michael, an intelligent second grader. "Yeah, one star," adds 5-year-old Matthew, "It was boring."

Why? "Because the dog in the title was away for almost all of the book." "Yeah, how can you have a book called Ginger Pye with no Ginger Pye in it?" It is a tale where a small, cute, intelligent puppy is kidnapped at the start, and is absent from the book until the final chapter. It was written in the 50's and has a sort of boring flavor to it. The book meanders... "What's meander mean?" asks Michael. I explain. He says, "It's moving, but it's not getting anywhere." And I think that sums up this book quite nicely.

Better than this book, according to my boys, were... Watership Down, Mrs. Frisby and Rats of NIMH, House at Pooh Corner, The Cricket in Times Square, Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte's Web. All of these, coincidentally, star animals that do not get kidnapped for the duration of their story. Matthew's top 3 were Pooh, NIMH, and Cricket, while Michael liked Watership, NIMH, and Pooh... Michael also recommends The Thief Lord, saying, "It may not have animals in it, but it's great. It's got a lot of mystery to it."

"I think that's about it," says Michael. "We're done," says Matthew.

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Summary: I would recommend Ginger Pye to any fourth grader.
Review: I think Ginger Pye was a very good book. It is about a boy and his sister. Their names are Jerry and Rachel Pye. They buy a dog and name it Ginger Pye. But on Thanksgiving Day Ginger Pye is stolen. If you want to find out who stole Ginger,who finds him, and what else happens, then you might want to read the book.

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Summary: Ginger Pye
Review: Jerry Pye wanted a dog to keep, and not to lose, so he got Ginger and taught him new tricks. Later in the book someone steals Ginger, and Jerry and his little sister can not find Ginger at all. Later strange things happen to them like they remember that the person who stole Ginger had a yellow hat on and later they see Jerry's friend wearing what looked like the same hat. This book is charactor driven because the charactors feelings change throught out the book. For example, Jerry feels great when he gets Ginger, but feels really sad when Ginger gets stolen. There are also many charactors that you get to know. After awhile you know evaryone in the story and you don't want to put the book down. This story is fun and exciting in the beginning, but in the middle it gets sad because Ginger gets stolen and all the Pyes are sad that Ginger wont be home for Christmas. After awhile things start to turn around at the Pyes house.

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Summary: An awesome mystery story
Review: One evening, two kids, Jerry and Rachel Pye, are reading on their small veranda when Jerry asks if Gracie (the cat) would be jealous if he got a dog. His sister answers, "No". They work very hard for the dollar needed to buy a certain puppy with their three-year-old uncle. Ginger, as the young dog came to be called, is one of the most famous dogs in their town, Cranbury. Soon after, on Thanksgiving Day, Ginger disappears from the backyard. After Ginger's disappearance, one of Jerry's classmates is strangely unfriendly. (Could this be connected with Ginger?) Will the children ever see the famous dog again? I think Ginger Pye is the best mystery story involving dogs ever to be written. I really enjoyed this book and I know you will too.

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Summary: Ginger Pye (great book)
Review: This great book is about a boy named Jerry and his sister Rachel who wants to buy a dog.There also is another person who wants to buy the same dog. The dog cost $1.They find the money just in time before the another person buys it.That night though, they hear foot-steps behind them.They see the person that night all they see is a yellow hat.The hat never bothers them again, until Thanksgiving day it stills the dog they think. You have to read the book to see who stole their dog named Ginger ,and if Ginger ever comes back.Book by Eleanor Estes.

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Summary: Lovable Characters, Pretty Good Plot
Review: This is a very sweet story that details the happenings as two siblings who get along strangely well go about earning money to purchase a puppy, get and keep the puppy, and then have the puppy stolen from them. The main characters, Jerry and Rachel Pye get along better than any brother and sister pair that I've ever known. In addition, they are quite avid readers and seem to think deeper than most children of their age. My favorite character was Rachel Pye who tended to be on the fairy tale side of most situations and whose "reasonableness" sometimes wasn't so reasonable. Ginger, the puppy that gets bought and then stolen is a very remarkable dog and is considered highly intelligent by most of the family and small town in which they reside. The author does a great job in portraying the dog's thoughts but during the description of the "pencil incident" I felt she was untrue to the story's previous voice. Before and after this point in the book she had used Ginger's actions to describe what he was thinking or feeling, but during this incident only, the puppy takes on qualities of personification that don't ring true for the rest of the book. One slightly irritating part of the book was another main character, Sam Doody. Sam Doody seems to always come by with a miracle in his pocket. I wish that Estes had spent a little bit more time developing his character rather than have him come swooping in out of nowhere to save the day on several occasions. Uncle Bennie, the siblings three-year-old uncle, was a favorite character of mine. I loved that he was a hero in Cranbury and that he was allowed to do certain things because he was an uncle and even took on certain personality traits because of his young age at having a niece and a nephew. Mr. Pye is a pretty absent father throughout most of the book and even seems a bit flaky when he is at home. Mrs. Pye seems to be a very good hearted person, yet very young mother. The illustrations by the author are very interesting and I was left with the question on whether these were carvings in wood or actually paper/pen illustrations. They are always true to the story and give a completeness for many of its younger readers. Overall, this book is a good mystery with some lovable characters and a pretty good plot throughout. You breathe a sigh of contentment as you close the book knowing that Ginger is in a safe place.