Weslandia
Weslandia
eBook(NOOK Kids)
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Overview
"This fantastical picture book, like its hero, is bursting at the seams with creativity. . . . a vigorous shot in the arm to nonconformists everywhere" — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Enter the witty, intriguing world of Weslandia! Now that school is over, Wesley needs a summer project. He’s learned that each civilization needs a staple food crop, so he decides to sow a garden and start his own — civilization, that is. He turns over a plot of earth, and plants begin to grow. They soon tower above him and bear a curious-looking fruit. As Wesley experiments, he finds that the plant will provide food, clothing, shelter, and even recreation. It isn’t long before his neighbors and classmates develop more than an idle curiosity about Wesley — and exactly how he is spending his summer vacation.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781536228007 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Candlewick Press |
| Publication date: | 02/01/2022 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Lexile: | AD820L (what's this?) |
| File size: | 16 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
| Age Range: | 4 - 8 Years |
About the Author
Paul Fleischman, like Wesley, constructed his own alternate world during his school years. "My friends and I invented our own sports, ran an underground newsppaer, and created our own school culture," he says.
Kevin Hawkes says that Wesley's world reminded him of ROBINSON CRUSOE, one of his favorite books as a child. "Wesley lives in this place where everything is the same," he explains, "yet he has created something unique and is living self-sufficiently, on his own island, in a way."
“Step into the wood-shingled house I grew up in, and into the past. You find us gathered in the living room, listening to my writer father, Sid Fleischman, reading his latest chapter aloud. Outside, the breeze off the Pacific, ten blocks away, streams through the fruit trees my parents have planted and rustles the cornfield in our front yard — the only cornfield in all of Santa Monica, California.”
Scant surprise that Paul Fleischman grew up to write Weslandia, about a grammar-school misfit who founds a new civilization in his suburban backyard, built around a mysterious wind-sown plant. A taste for nonconformity and a love of the plant world run through many of his books, including Animal Hedge, in which a father uses a clipped shrub to guide his sons in choosing their careers.
“My mother plays piano, my father classical guitar. From upstairs that evening comes the entrancing sound of my sisters playing a flute duet. The house resounds with Bach, Herb Alpert, Dodgers games, and Radio Peking coming from my shortwave radio.”
From that musical, multitrack upbringing came Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, winner of the Newbery Medal, and Big Talk, its sequel for a quartet of speakers. It’s also the source of the author’s madcap play, Zap, a theatrical train wreck of seven simultaneous plays, the result of a stage company’s attempt to compete with TV.
“My father’s interest in things historical has led to the purchase of a hand printing press. We’ve all learned to set type. I have my own business, printing stationery for my parents’ friends. I read type catalogs along with Dylan Thomas and Richard Brautigan.”
History has informed many of Paul’s books, from the colonial settings of his Newbery Honor book Graven Images, inspired by his years living in a two-hundred-year-old house in New Hampshire, to the newly updated Dateline: Troy, which juxtaposes the Trojan War story with strikingly similar newspaper clippings from World War I to the Iraq War.
“An old issue of Mad magazine sits on a table, along with a copy of the Daily Sun-Times and Walnut, the satiric underground paper I started with two friends, which landed us in the dean’s office today—again.”
What better education for the future author of A Fate Totally Worse Than Death, a wicked parody of teen horror novels,? Or for the visual humor of Sidewalk Circus, a wordless celebration of how much more children see than their elders?
“Thirty-five years later, I still draw on Bach, living-room theater, the look of letters on a page, and still aspire to the power of a voice coming from a radio late at night in a pitch-black room.”
About Me:
I grew up in a pretty creative family. I have three brothers and one sister. There was a lot of music in our house, as well as books and homemade projects like toothpick sculptures, paper-mâché pinatas, and wooden models. We spent a lot of time outdoors. Wherever we lived, my siblings and I went exploring. We built tree forts and hideouts. I loved watching animals, insects, and turtles.
I moved a lot when I was little and have lived in Europe and many parts of the United States. Europe left a huge impression on me. Climbing winding staircases in castle towers and exploring ancient forests gave me a sense of history and adventure.
In school, I was that quiet kid who liked to read. In the third grade I fell in love with chapter books like Freddy the Detective, The Borrowers, and The Great Brain. My parents loved books, too, and I liked being read to almost more than anything else. I also drew a lot. I liked to draw spaceships, race cars, castles, and monsters. I didn’t like to draw cats or bicycles. A cat riding a bicycle is still a hard thing for me to draw!
Today I live in Southern Maine with my wife and children. Our family loves to make things, and there are lots of projects going on all the time. Wood carving, weaving, sewing, gardening, and blacksmithing are all skills that inspire me.
About My Work:
Becoming an illustrator seemed like the way to combine reading and drawing. Bringing stories to life is so exciting! My illustrations come mostly from my imagination. I love to paint brilliant blue skies and use unusual perspectives.
Using my sense of humor to make kids and adults smile makes me happy. I love the idea of my books being read to children at bedtime. Books are such a peaceful end to sometimes hectic days.
Three Things About Me:
1) I don’t think I have ever fallen asleep during a movie.
2) My bicycle has thick tires and a wire basket on the front big enough to hold a bag of groceries.
3) I have a dog who eats socks.