LoveReading4Kids Says
LoveReading4Kids Says
A Julia Eccleshare Pick of the Month April 2022 | Longlisted for the UKLA Book Award 2023 ages 7-10
Award-winning Sharon Creech has an exceptional gift that enables her to tell her stories lightly and with humour. Gina Filomena has always been different from her classmates. She sees things when others can’t, she wears amazing, vividly coloured clothes sent by her grandmother, she plays wildly inventive games with her father.
Teachers have always told her that she has an overactive imagination but then Miss Lightstone, a teacher who encourages creative thinking and writing, arrives and, coincidentally Antonio a boy with an imagination that is equal to her own joins the class and Gina finds that imagination can be a wonderful, transformative new power.
In a story that takes the same imaginative leaps in its telling as Gina, Antonio and their classmates take under Miss Lightstone’s inspirational teaching this is an inspirational novel that sings to its readers while also encouraging them to us their imaginations and to have the courage to be free.
Julia Eccleshare M.B.E
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About
One Time Synopsis
Gina Filomena has been told that she has an overactive imagination. With her bright clothing and artistic spirit, she's always felt different from the other kids in her class. That is, until she meets her neighbour, a mysterious boy called Anotonio. And when a creative new teacher, Miss Lightstone, arrives at school, Gina finds a world of possibilities opens up.
A wonderful tale about the transformative power of imagination, the effects of an inspirational teacher, and the journey to becoming who you are meant to be.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781913101664 |
| Publication date: |
14th April 2022 |
| Author: |
Sharon Creech |
| Publisher: |
Guppy Publishing Ltd |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
225 pages |
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Press Reviews
Sharon Creech Press Reviews
'A celebration of writing with memorable characters... this book is sure to be a hit with both young readers and their teachers... this book spotlights an inspirational teacher with a passion for thoughtfulness and words, and the children who thrive in this creative collaboration' - School Library Journal (starred review)
'Creech skilfully catches Gina at the point in life when a child's small world opens up into a much wider adult one' - Kirkus Reviews
'Threaded with themes of friendship, acceptance, and self-discovery, Gina’s story slowly unfolds, reminding readers that it’s okay to imagine life’s possibilities while still accepting its undeniable realities.' - Publishers Weekly
'A standout teacher and mysterious new student open the minds and notebooks of Gina Filomena and her fellow classmates...Gina, her classmates, and readers simultaneously discover that with most people there is far more than meets the eye. Newbery-winning Creech skilfully catches Gina at the point in life when a childsmall world opens up into a much wider adult one. As Gina navigates this transition, the line between real and imagined is blurred... For fans of Creech’s hallmark beautiful writing.' - Kirkus Reviews
Author
About Sharon Creech
Known for writing with a classic voice and unique style, Sharon Creech is the best-selling author of the Newbery Medal winner Walk Two Moons, and the Newbery Honor Book The Wanderer. She is also the first American in history to be awarded the CILIP Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler.
Her other works include the novels Love That Dog, Bloomability, Absolutely Normal Chaos, Chasing Redbird, and Pleasing the Ghost, and two picture books: A Fine, Fine School and Fishing in the Air. These stories are often centered around life, love, and relationships, especially family relationships. Ms. Creech's first novel for children, Absolutely Normal Chaos, was based on her own "rowdy and noisy" family. Growing up in a big family in Cleveland, Ohio, helped Ms. Creech learn to tell stories that wouldn't be forgotten in all of the commotion: "I learned to exaggerate and embellish, because if you didn't, your story was drowned out by someone else's more exciting one."
With a knack for storytelling and love of reading, a young Ms. Creech aspired to become a novelist: "To be able to create other worlds, to be able to explore mystery and myth, I couldn't imagine a better way to live. . .except perhaps to be a teacher, because teachers got to handle books all day long."
In college, Ms. Creech took her first writing courses and attended writing workshops. This renewed her enthusiasm for becoming a novelist. Following her studies in college and graduate school, Ms. Creech worked as an editorial assistant before deciding to become a teacher overseas. Now, after spending eighteen years teaching and writing in Europe, she and her husband have returned to the United States to live.
She and her husband now live in Maine, near a farm where her teenage granddaughter raises sheep.
More About Sharon Creech
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