Nouns and Verbs Have a Field Day
1 Paperback/1 CD (see all formats)

"Mr. Wright’s students like to play a game with nouns and verbs, so their classroom walls are filled with them. On Field Day, when they are out of the room, the nouns and verbs decide to have a field day of their own and form teams. Unfortunately, like seeks like and they soon discover that nobody can win if your team consists of just nouns or verbs. Working together, however, offers the possibility of success. John Beach reads Pulver’s rollicking story (Holiday House, 2006) with gusto, turning the nouns and verbs into individuals. Readers can enjoy his verbal high jinks while flipping the pages and diving into Lynn Rowe Reed’s bold, kid-friendly illustrations. While it is occasionally a bit annoying that every word and letter in the jam-packed illustrations is read aloud, often resulting in duplication, this is a minor quibble. Those following along will doubtless enjoy searching for the words being read. Teachers will appreciate this joyous celebration of parts of speech and will find this a fun set for classroom use."

[Editors' Note: The following is a combined review of NOUNS AND VERBS HAVE A FIELD DAY and SILENT LETTERS LOUD AND CLEAR.]--"Robin Pulver takes young listeners into Mr. Wright's classroom for more escapades with phonics, parts of speech, and punctuation. Listeners will chuckle as they refresh themselves on the powerful relationship between nouns and verbs in sentences (NOUNS AND VERBS HAVE A FIELD DAY). They'll smile in agreement as Mr. Wright's students protest the need to include silent letters when spelling (SILENT LETTERS LOUD AND CLEAR). Narrator John Beach plays off Pulver's humor and invites listeners to imagine individual letters' personalities and voices. Beach observes the interaction between the text and its illustrations with leisurely pacing and pauses. As Mr. Wright, Beach is horrified, perplexed, or pleased each time his class surprises him. Background sound effects of school complete the production."