Eddie Longpants

by Mireille Levert

Overview

Eddie Longpants is big. Really big. He has long legs and huge feet and gangly arms that dangle down from his shoulders and bump into everything. Every day at school, his classmates find new ways to bully him. When things get too painful, he takes refuge under his favorite tree.

But one day the bullying goes too far and the teacher notices. Then Eddie shows his tormentor that there's more than one way to behave. In the end Eddie and his classmates realize that being big isn't so bad after all, especially when you have a big heart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554981298
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	04/09/2011
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

MIREILLE LEVERT is one of Quebec’s most talented children’s book author-illustrators. Her previous books include Lucy’s Secret, Rose by Night and Tulip and Lupin Forever, and she has won Governor General’s awards for Island in the Soup and Sleep Tight, Mrs. Ming. Mireille lives in Montreal where she works as an illustrator.

Editorial Reviews

This story explores one of the strategies that help people who are bullied – having a friend. Just one friend can make a difference to the person who is bullied and help that person feel accepted

Teaching By The Book

[This] gentle, charmingly illustrated book will intrigue children with its unusual design...With its themes of appreciating individual differences, bullying, and forgiveness, Eddie Longpants would be an excellent classroom read aloud to generate discussion of these issues with young audiences and to promote self-esteem. Highly recommended.

Canadian Children's Literature - CBRA

The medium is as gentle delivered as the message of tolerance for those who are different.

Globe and Mail

This comforting resolution to the problem of difference may be just the anodyne fantasy needed by picture-book readers who are beginning to brave the terrors of kindergarten.

Quill & Quire

This comforting resolution to the problem of difference may be just the anodyne fantasy needed by picture-book readers who are beginning to brave the terrors of kindergarten.

Quill and Quire

•Short-listed for the Marilyn Bailie Picture Book Award, 2006

•CCBC Our Choice, 2006

"A story told with gentle innocence. Eddie Longpants is about appreciating differences and, as such, it stands out in a crowd." —School Library Journal

"The medium is as gentle delivered as the message of tolerance for those who are different." —Globe and Mail

From the Publisher

Levert's (Island in the Soup) story takes place entirely along the vertical axis; the book opens up, not out, and the outsize Eddie Longpants stretches from the top of the page to the bottom. Levert's softly rounded illustrations and simple text temper the book's familiar subject matter: bullying. Eddie, a shy boy in striped trousers and suspenders, towers over his schoolmates, and his nemesis, Pete, taunts him constantly: "Giraffe alert!" A sad-looking Eddie in four-legged giraffe trousers and a pair of droopy ears appears in a word balloon coming from Pete's mouth. When Eddie's even larger mother comes for a visit-and Eddie's teacher, Miss Snowpea, runs up to the roof so she can look Mrs. Longpants in the eye-Pete makes fun of her, too. Miss Snowpea sizzles with indignation (around her head swirls a big, black cloud of hammers, lightning bolts and other wrathful objects) but the tearful Eddie does not think of vengeance. Pete, stuck high in a tree, is surprised to be rescued by the very boy he's been taunting. "You're a big guy, that's for sure," Pete says, perched on Eddie's shoulders. "But your heart is even bigger." It's a sweetly humorous portrayal of loving kindness, of adults coming decisively to the defense of children, and of a teacher willing to accommodate differences. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 1-A story told with gentle innocence. Eddie Longpants is so tall that this book has to be read vertically. (Children are sure to enjoy the unconventional format.) He is taunted every day at recess; the other kids call him "giraffe," "ostrich neck," and "skyscraper." The unusually sweet boy isn't spurred to anger until his mother visits for report-card day and is also ridiculed. However, Eddie and his very tall parents demonstrate the power of charity and compassion--without a hint of saccharine sentimentality or didacticism. This is achieved through the subtle simplicity of language as well as the appealing, folk-art quality of the color-saturated illustrations. There's something timeless about this tall tale. Eddie Longpants is about appreciating differences and, as such, it stands out in a crowd.-Susan Weitz, formerly at Spencer-Van Etten School District, Spencer, NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Eddie's very tall, lanky stature poses more than a logistics problem at school. Viewed as the oddball of the class, he's teased and called a giraffe, a walking staircase, ladderhead and even a skyscraper. When his mother arrives on report card day, and the teacher must greet the equally tall Mrs. Longpants from the rooftop of the school, classmate Pete's merciless bullying brings tears and pain to Eddie under the teacher's wrathful disapproval. Escaping up a tree to avoid the angry Miss Snowpea, Pete realizes that it's too high to climb down and he becomes scared, at which point, the big-hearted Eddie uses his fireman dad's hook and ladder to generously rescue the cowardly, ill-mannered Pete. Eddie's gangling awkwardness is overshadowed by his gentle, kind demeanor, subtly demonstrating the golden rule principle to all his misbehaving classmates. Levert's watercolor-and-gouache acrylic paintings offer a textured look of colors that bleed and blend for her exaggeratedly imagined scenarios of the verbal taunts. Coupled with a top-to-bottom layout accentuating the elongated focus of each scene, this is sympathetic and to the point. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews