SubscribeLeon just started fourth grade. The good news is his two best friends, P. W., and Lily-Matisse, are both in his class. The bad news is that the school bully is also in his class this year. Worse news is that Leon’s teacher, a strict woman named Miss Hagmeyer, has a unique method of teaching. She makes her class do sewing projects! Leon is known for lacking fine motor skills. How will he ever make it to fifth grade? Can he finish all his projects on time for the end of the year carnival, or will he be doomed to spending another year with “The Hag”?
The basic story line is one most people will relate to. There is much more to this story, however! Leon lives in a hotel with his mother, who runs the desk. Leon gets to meet people with strange jobs and lifestyles, and ride a cab to school every day, instead of a bus. The school Leon attends has a medieval theme going this year, and the kids are all learning details about what it was like to live then. There is a bit of a mystery going on. Miss Hagmeyer is taking away their sewing projects as soon as they finish, instead of letting the students take them home. But where do they go? Leon and his friends try and solve the mystery. Towards the end, there is even a bit of magic in Leon’s master piece, which leads to mostly harmless and hysterically funny mischief.
This book is written for kids, but is one that adults will enjoy too. Haven’t we all had a teacher we hoped we wouldn’t get, but then, got stuck with for an entire school year anyway? The book is very funny, in a quirky, fourth grade kind of way. There are some great drawings scattered throughout the book that add to the story line. My favorite is a drawing of Miss Hagmeyer’s ears. One appears on one side of the page, and the other is along the other side, with the text of the story written in the middle. I also liked the first and last pages of the book that is filled with drawings of what look like eyeballs. Underneath each one is a label. Some are normal animals, but some say things like “dragon” and “phoenix”. It takes a little while to figure out how those fit in to the story. All of the drawings are as funny as they are skillful.
This would be a great summer read for a kid about to enter fourth grade next school year. The end of this book gives a few pages from Kurzweil’s next book, Leon and the Champion Chip.
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