Late for School

by Mike Reiss

Book Overview

Follow the rollicking, surreal adventures of a young boy as he races to get to school on time.

Smitty is never late for school. Not when his shoes get stuck in a sea of thick, black tar. Not when the sky rains snowmen down on the city streets. Not when he uses his coat for a sail to catch a gale and is swallowed up by a whale. Or when he encounters a robot from Mars eating up cars...or a very, very hungry T. Rex!

With rhyming...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1561454915
• ISBN13: 9781561454914
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 9.7" x 10.7"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Master Illustrator

While the rhyming text may be a bit forced at times, the book's illustrations are breathtakingly vivid and strange. Austin clearly has talent to burn and an original vision. I look foward to seeing more of his art. He reminds me in some ways of another great illustrator of our time, Chris Van Allsburg--both have a quirky, somewhat unsettling way of presenting things so that we can see them in new ways.

Entertaining excuses

This is an amusing tale of one boy's heroic efforts to get to school on time. Told in easy-to-read rhymes that impart a lyric rhythm to this story, we follow Scotty as he outwits aliens, dinosaurs, whales, and snowmen who would stand in the way of his arrival at school. The illustrations are rendered with a combination of airbrushing, painting and drawing, and the stellar results of this method and Michael Austin's creative use of perspectives makes the artwork the highlight of this book.Younger children will be drawn in by the bright colors, funny situations, and the sound of the rhymes, and school-aged children may recognize (or admire!) some of the scenarios. They will probably also suspect they know what's going on, until the last couple of pages, when there is a surprise twist.

We loved it.

As students we appreciate what Smitty endured in his valiant effort to get to school on time. The illustrations have a brilliant and wacky quality with strange perspective that is a surprise and a delight. Each page is a delightful adventure. It is a great read aloud book and our librarian read it to us. We won't tell the ending.Students at Harbor Day School