Nursery Crimes

by Arthur Geisert

Book Overview

Jambo and Marva emigrated from France to Iowa and opened a small tree nursery.They and their piglets were skilled topiarists.Every autumn, they sculpted giant turkey topiaries, for which there was a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618064877
• ISBN13: 9780618064878
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.8" x 11.3"
• Age Range: 4 to 7 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 2

Customer Reviews

CUTE, UNIQUE READ WITH SOME GREAT ILLUSTRATIONS. Wondeful seasonal read for the little ones.

This work was first introduced in 2001 in a hardcover edition which is the one being reviewed here. The author begins this charming tale with an introduction: Jambonneau and his pretty wife, Merville de Peru, immigrated from Amiens, France, to a small tree nursery just south of Ames, Iowa, an area famous for its tree nurseries. Jambo and Marva, as they were known in America, had twelve children. From an early age, the children were taught how to trim trees to sculptural shapes. They were skilled in the art of topiary, Jambo and Marva also dealt in giant pumpkins and salvage to make ends meet." Thus our story begins. The immigrant family, who are actually an entire, rather large family of country dressed pigs are a hard working lot and have a wonderful combination nursery and salvage yard in which each member participates. The children, all twelve of them, are absolute experts at topiary and as our story begins they are creating wonderful sculptured turkeys, quite large, to sell with the giant pumpkins. Early one morning, shortly before the holiday season, the family awoke and alas....all their beautifully done topiary had vanished...someone had stolen it all! This industrious group gather their wits, suppress there disappointment and pitch right in and create more. Yup, you guessed it...the next morning the tress were again missing! This is actually an easy read work with tone or two lines per page. It does introduce a number of new words but they blend beautifully with the old well know ones and present the little ones with a wonderful opportunity to expand their vocabulary and reading skills. The illustrations in this work make the story though. Imagine a combination tree nursery, pumpkin patch and junk yard all mingled a mingling which also includes a rather unique house made from old busses, railroad cars, pieces of an old church, playground equipment and various pieces of flotsam. Each picture is extremely detailed, eye catching and charming in a whimsical way. The story itself is not a scary story although it of course has an element of mystery which keeps the little ones interested. This is a wonderful read aloud book to use with groups or a good bedtime story to be read one on one. Now pigs are rather bright animals and one of my favorites to work with so I suppose I am a bit partial here. They are dressed in a fashion quite like my own, so again, I felt right at home reading this one. I have also a strong affection to clutter and junk, quite often haunting junk yards and old trash heaps; dragging my valuable finds home, much to the annoyance and chagrin of my wife...so again, I could identify. All in all, this is a delightful story, perfect reading for this time of year.

Clever pig!

Jambo and Marva are immigrant pigs living in Ames Town. They have 12 children and make their living by raising topiaries and pumpkins. One night the topiary thief Voler steals all their turkeys. Facing financial disaster, Marva cooks up a scheme that helps them prove Voler was the culprit The book is not scary, but it does have some tension. It introduces some uncommon vocabulary words such as topiary. It has about 900 words.