Spring Break at Pokeweed Public School

Lisa Arsenault is an elementary-school teacher in Ajax, Ontario.

Spring break has arrived, and the students of Pokeweed Public School
embark on their annual camp-out. After pitching their tents, doing some
fly fishing, and eating dinner, they sit around the campfire and listen
to the legend of Ogopokeweed (a creature similar to the Loch Ness
monster who is supposed to inhabit the lake). Inspired by the legend,
two of the campers (one of whom is Melody Mooner, familiar from other
Bianchi books) decide to see if the creature really exists by setting up
an instant camera near an enticing cache of food. The plan backfires,
but in an amusing way, and the children leave camp having had a great
time and vowing to try to see Ogopokeweed again.

This is a very lighthearted, enjoyable, and upbeat book. The students
are depicted as harmless and familiar creatures—they are, for example,
pigs, dogs, cows, and rabbits—and even Ogopoke-weed is a very benign,
cheerful-looking monster. Young children will enjoy the humorous aspect
of the illustrations: the antics of the fledgling anglers as they tangle
their lines and the difficulties the campers have putting up their
tents. Recommended.