Dead Possums Are Fair Game

October 19, 2015
Math teacher and picture book author Souder (Whole-y Cow! Fractions Are Fun), upends neatnik Ella's numerophobia and assumptions about adults in this wholesome novel. Morty, a dead opossum that manages to catch a kickball thanks to the wonders of rigor mortis, and Wacky Willa, Ella's favorite aunt who arrives to share Ella's room for several weeks, propel radical changes in this fifth-grader's life. Supported by friends Jolina and Lucille, newcomer Jonathan, her parents, and some remarkably understanding teachers, Ella not only survives Willa's dog's tendency to swallow or throw up on everything important to her, but also the last-minute destruction of an important math project, with a summer free from tutoring hanging in the balance. Willa may not be the roommate Ella hoped for, but her loving encouragement and advice lend her a special role in her niece's life. Ella's narration doesn't always sound like that of a kid (and clichéd interjections from her French classmate, Jean-Pierre, are even less so), but readers should still find her adventures appealing and entertaining. Ages 8â12. Agent: Sally Apokedak, Leslie H. Stobbe Agency.

September 15, 2015
A opossum in rigor mortis "catches" a dodgeball and inspires a fifth-grade math project. Narrator Ella's aversion to math and desire for order collide in a day of disasters: there's a dead, rotting opossum on the way to school, an impending visit by an eccentric aunt with her pet dog, and a math-group project that will count for two test grades. Ella's project buddies are her longtime best friends Lucille and Jolina. Souders has a pretty good feel for middle (or nearly) school academic and social interactions. The girls have an affectionate-or at least tolerant-understanding of one another's quirks and foibles. They are teamed with a new student whose only fault is his name (Ella's mother's therapy for her intense arachnophobia is to think of every spider as "Jonathan," summoning automatic shudders). The rest of the characters fade to background or are caricatures, like Ella's French-immigrant classmate, Jean-Pierre, whose clunkily stereotyped exclamations seem time-warped: "Sacre bleu!" "Zut alors!" The several occasions of people-and the dog-spitting up or spitting out are goofily gross but clearly calculated to appeal to the target audience. And the dreadful smell of the opossum seems at odds with its condition of rigor mortis. However, the satisfactory conclusion-a teacher's recognition of a hurdle cleared-is within readers' reach. Diverting and frequently funny. (Fiction. 8-11)

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