Skippyjon Jones in the Doghouse

by Judy Schachner, Judy Schachner (Illustrator)

Overview

For another loco adventure. In his room for a time-out, Skippyjon Jones lets his imagination take him to a shack where his Chihuahua friends are yipping and yapping and hiding out from the bad Bobble-ito, who has taken over their doghouse. How El Skippito chills the Chihuahuas and banishes the Bobble-ito will make more amigos for this endearing and irresistible rascal, who made his first appearance in the favorite Skippyjon Jones.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142407493
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	02/01/2007
Series:	Skippyjon Jones Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	71,101
Product dimensions:	10.50(w) x 8.88(h) x 0.12(d)
Lexile:	AD650L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Best known for her Skippyjon Jones series, Judy Schachner has illustrated many of her own stories, including the much-loved Grannyman and its companion book, Bits & Pieces. A #1 New York Times Bestseller, Judy is also known for her spirited reading of the Skippyjon stories, for which she won the first E. B. White Read Aloud Award. She lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

We know for certain that your kid will love hearing you read it aloud. (Time Out New York Kids)

Ole to the greatest poco perrito; he’s as full of beans as in the first escapade. (Kirkus Reviews)

This is a wonderful choice for story time or a fun bedtime read-aloud. (Bookpage)

Interviews

Q & A with Judy Schachner

What inspired you to create the character Skippyjon Jones?
My very own cat Skippy inspired these books, as well as my brother Kevin, Antonio Banderas, and the teeny, tiny, trembling Chihuahua deep down inside of me.

Skippyjon Jones has an active imagination. What is the best thing parents can do to encourage their children to imagine?
The best thing a parent can do for a child is to give him/her the time to use their imagination. Pure, unadulterated, un-programmed, unplugged time. Sprinkle in lots of hugs and kisses and mix with a healthy dose of snuggles and books.

Are family and friends represented in the characters you create?
Absolutely. I believe in exploiting family, friends and pets for fame and fortune. Both my girls were tom boys when they were little. Sarah, the younger was a combination of Superman and John Lennon of the Beatles. She flew around town in a gold lame cape and yellow swimming goggles which squished her eyes close together. Emma was an American red fox and a Viking explorer. Yo Vikings was a book written about them, and it is based on a true story. My husband makes an appearance in The Grannyman. He is wearing pink pajamas. The people who rode the train to work with him everyday gave him a hard time. Hee, hee, hee!

Do you have any pets?
I currently have two cats named Skippy and Tink and one dog we rescued named Buster. They love ice cream but they cannot read.

Skippyjon Jones is a Siamese cat who believes he is a Chihuahua. When you were a kid what characters and creatures did you pretend to be?
I have never been comfortable in my own skin. I much preferred living in the skin of Patti Paige, My Little Margie, Shirley Temple, Davy Crockett, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, and Dr. Kildares' love interest. But most of all I loved inhabiting the characters of Dorothy and Toto. Today I am a Chihuahua as old as Monte Zuma with no plans to enter either a kennel or a convent.

How did your imagination and artwork help you cope with some of the difficulties in your childhood?
Imagination sustained me through a painful childhood of poor report cards and personal loss. I could always draw myself into a world in which dreamers ruled and mothers never died.

You incorporate some Spanish into your Skippyjon Jones books. Do you feel it is important for children to begin learning a second language at an early age?
I so regret never learning a foreign language. Children should start in kindergarten. I'm sure it would lead to a more tolerant world.

What future adventures will Skippy and his imagination take readers on?
Skippyjon Jones and I are currently in his closet working on a new sequel titled Mummy Love.

Editorial Reviews

We know for certain that your kid will love hearing you read it aloud. (Time Out New York Kids)

Ole to the greatest poco perrito; he’s as full of beans as in the first escapade. (Kirkus Reviews)

This is a wonderful choice for story time or a fun bedtime read-aloud. (Bookpage)

From the Publisher

A popular character returns in Skippyjon Jones in the Doghouse by Judy Schachner. Here the Siamese "kitty boy" that transforms into El Skippito Friskito, a Chihuahua, for his superhero antics, drives out the menacing Bobble-ito from his canine buddies' doghouse. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 3-The Siamese cat from Skippyjon Jones (Dutton, 2003) that thinks he's a Chihuahua returns in another adventure. Sent to his room by his mother for drawing on the walls, the feline puts on a mask and cape and then sings in a Spanish accent: "Oh, my name is Skippito Friskito/And I heard from a leetle birdito/That the doggies have fled/From the gobbling head/Who goes by the name Bobble-ito!" He then boards his skateboard and rolls into his closet, eventually arriving at a shack where he finds his Chihuahua friends. They explain that their home has been invaded ("Yesterday morning we left the house to buy some beans-when we returned, a Bobble-ito was in la casa perrito") and ask for his help. He solves the problem by grabbing the intruder and stuffing it into his pants. At story's end, Mama checks on Skippyjon and finds him wrapped in a blanket and talking to his sister's bobblehead doll. Schachner's ink-and-acrylic illustrations create the madcap surrealistic world Skippyjon inhabits, but the narrative offers little more than bad verse, confused plotting, and Taco Bell-style expressions-a fact underscored by the accompanying CD of the author reading her two Skippyjon tales. For rhyming dog stories, skip this doggerel and stay with the antics of Lynley Dodd's "Hairy Maclary" books (Tricycle).-Kathleen Whalin, York Public Library, ME Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Holy Jalapeno! That devilish, disarming, dog-eared Siamese kitten who thinks he's a Chihuahua is back and in trouble-again. His crayon artwork on the walls rubs Mama Junebug's fur the wrong way and she gives him a timeout with the threat NOT to go in his closet or he'll be in the doghouse. But quicker than you can say Skippyjon Jones, the naughty cat dons his mask and cape and superhero Skippito is off on another Mexican adventure with his old amigos, Los Chimichangos, banishing the menacing, nodding Bobble-ito monster (an itty-bitty kitten bobblehead) from their doghouse. Playful type embellishes exaggerated "Splanish" words and the watercolor-pen-ink caricatures are as perky and outsized as Skippyjon's ears. Ole to the greatest poco perrito; he's as full of beans as in the first escapade. Mas, por favor. (CD read by the author) (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews

Some audiobooks can stand alone, and be listened to without any book or introduction. But this story doesn’t move smoothly and ends quite suddenly, so even though Robert Ramirez gets right into SkippyJon’s Mexican persona, it’s difficult to follow what is happening. Ramirez’s Spanish accent, with English and Spanish words well enunciated and mixed in the sentences, carries SkippyJon well through his adventures, and the secondary characters are equally well done. But a short narrator’s note explaining who SkippyJon is, or a note suggesting the reader read the series in sequence, would make it much more enjoyable. Good for early elementary students trying to learn Spanish, even if they miss the word play. W.L.S. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

APR/MAY 06 - AudioFile