For his birthday, Calvin’s mother gives him two tickets to see Lomax the Magnificent (magician and hypnotist extraordinaire!). Even though Mama hin...
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Sep 25, 2011
Riven
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‘Probuditi!’ by ‘Jumanji’ and ‘The Polar Express’ author Chris Van Allsburg is the story of a boy who goes to see a magician and uses the mind control techniques he witnesses to hypnotise his sister. A race against time subsequently follows as the boy and his friend try to find the magician so they can get the magic word to snap his sister out of her trance before his mother gets home.
The story, set in 1940’s America, does view the period with rose or I should say brown tinted spect More...
The story, set in 1940’s America, does view the period with rose or I should say brown tinted spect More...
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Sep 24, 2011
It is Calvins birthday and for his present his mother gave him two tickets to see the extraordinary Lomax,a world famous magician and hypnotist.Calvin takes his best friend Rodney with him and the two watch in awe when Lomax hypnotizes a woman from the crowd. When Calvin goes home he decides to try and hypnotize his little sister. It seems to work and she becomes a dog. Calvin cannot remember the magic words to switch her back so he tries to find the magician from the show to tell him. After a l
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Sep 14, 2010
Josiah
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Anyone who picks up this book will probably notice first thing the marvelous, looming artwork of Chris Van Allsburg. That has always been a trademark of his picture books, in none more clearly than in Probuditi!
This story is one of belief and disbelief freely interacting, asking the reader to make decisions as to what is real and what is a facade; what one chooses to believe and what one chooses to disregard will have an important impact on how one views the narrative.
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This story is one of belief and disbelief freely interacting, asking the reader to make decisions as to what is real and what is a facade; what one chooses to believe and what one chooses to disregard will have an important impact on how one views the narrative.
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Sep 16, 2011
Chrissy
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This book had such a surprising ending! I would have never guessed how things would finish up! This aspect made me like the book so much! One thing I didn't like, however, was how some of the pages would begin mid-conversation. That took a bit of time to actually figure out what's going on. Although I liked the illustrations, I did not think that some of them really tied in that well with what was going on in the story at that point. This book seemed to be set some time in the past, possibly the
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Sep 13, 2011
Tiffany
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A little boy named Calvin watches a magician hypnotize a woman on stage and then he and his friend Rodney decide to hypnotize Rodney's sister, Trudy. They hypnotize her into acting like a dog and doing tricks. At the end of the story, Trudy lets Calvin know through a subtle clue that she was actually playing a joke on them and she wasn't hypnotized at all!
Probuditi is one of my favorite picture books! I love this book for many reasons. I really enjoy seeing how the class reacts to t More...
Probuditi is one of my favorite picture books! I love this book for many reasons. I really enjoy seeing how the class reacts to t More...
Feb 06, 2012
Right when I picked this book off the shelf, I instantly noticed its size. It is larger than most books. Its orientation is portrait, which is fitting because the story is about people. The title is in a bold and blunt font, and the illustration of on the cover is creepy. The illustrations are done with browns and blacks and they create a dark feeling. The illustrations on the fist page of the story and on the last are not full bleed. This takes us into the story in the start and takes us back t
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Sep 14, 2010
Shannan
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I think that the use of brown and white drawn illustrations really helped to set a mood and a tone for the story. I felt like it was a longtime ago but it really could have been at any time or place. It was very graphically appealing. I think that if it was a full color text it would have been a little too light hearted. It was important to give some depth to the story through the illustrations. As a mother I was angry at how the son was treated in the story. Eventhough this was not the point it
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Sep 01, 2009
Patrick
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I love Chris Van Allsburg and we checked out a handful of books from the library last week. This one was new to me.
I don't know what the deal is with me and covers lately, but I didn't like this one either. The title gives you no clue about the content of the story and the picture really doesn't either. The chicken-dancin', garter-showin' lady is kind of funny, but I would have chosen the picture of the magician on the left side of that same page or one of the sister doing dog-l More...
I don't know what the deal is with me and covers lately, but I didn't like this one either. The title gives you no clue about the content of the story and the picture really doesn't either. The chicken-dancin', garter-showin' lady is kind of funny, but I would have chosen the picture of the magician on the left side of that same page or one of the sister doing dog-l More...
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Feb 06, 2012
Kendra
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This story was very unique and unusual. The images were full bleed and the colors used were dull. The images and the text fought for the main focus on the pages because the images were full bleed but the text was separated with it's own border. The last page contains a cut out image of a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk instead of a full bleed image like the rest of the pages. The images are very detailed and realistic. The text on each page is plain and located in the top left co
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Feb 06, 2012
This book was an awesome read! The book reminded me a lot of my brother and I when we were kids so I enjoyed reading it. I would always want to be hanging out with my brother and his friends when we were little and I hated when he told me to go away or that I was too young to play with them. When I got to the end of the book and I read the last page, I could not help but smile and laugh out loud! I could just picture myself as Tracy, faking to be hypnotized by my brother just to play a joke on h
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Feb 06, 2012
Katrina
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This book was pretty good! It left me with questions at the end like if the girl pretended to be a dog and made the two boys think that their hypnotizing worked. Or if the hypnotizing really worked and she remembered some parts. To me it sounds like she pretended. Illustrations were big and really good.I would recommend this for a read aloud to children. I liked how the mother punish her son because he was being mean to his little sister. It showed that you should be nice to your siblings or you
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Sep 15, 2010
This was a charming book about a real life issue - sibling rivalry! I picked up this book because I loved the picture on the front cover. It was a picture of a woman who appeared to storming after something. Her knee high nylons and bloomers peaking out from under her dress along with the sepia coloring, gave the impression that the story took place a long time ago. Contrary to most of the Van Allsburg books I've read,the pictures were a full bleed giving the reader an invitation to step into
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Feb 06, 2012
Probuditi is another children's picture book written by Chris Van Allsburg. It is presented with a portrait layout, but like Zathura, the illustrations go across both pages, giving the story a landscape layout. Again, similar to Zathura, Probuditi is filled with extremely realistic pictures, and the text of the story is blocked off with a normal type font. But unlike Zathura, the images have a sepia tint and the illustrations go full bleed, allowing the reader to feel like he/she is a part of th
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Mar 08, 2011
Randie
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Van Allsburg, Chris. (2006). Probuditi! Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Literary Genre: Fiction (Picture Story Book)
Calvin’s birthday gift is tickets for him and a friend to go see “Lomax the Magnificent, the world-famous magician and hypnotist”. After the performance, Calvin and his friend decide to do some hypnotizing of their own and shortly after Calvin’s little sister Trudy is barking, whining, panting, and walking on all fours like a dog. The real magic of this s More...
Literary Genre: Fiction (Picture Story Book)
Calvin’s birthday gift is tickets for him and a friend to go see “Lomax the Magnificent, the world-famous magician and hypnotist”. After the performance, Calvin and his friend decide to do some hypnotizing of their own and shortly after Calvin’s little sister Trudy is barking, whining, panting, and walking on all fours like a dog. The real magic of this s More...
Oct 08, 2008
Christina
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Probuditi! is yet another classic story from Chris Van Allsburg that will surely delight readers. The book follows Calvin, a young boy celebrating his birthday, and his friend Rodney as they race to halt the hypnosis they haphazardly affected on Calvin’s pesky little sister, Trudy. Trudy is led to believe that she is a dog, complete with barking, panting and lapping up milk. When they can’t snap her out of it, the boys go to great lengths to avoid trouble from Calvin’s punitive mother.
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May 11, 2008
Jennifer
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Reviewed by Me for Kids @ TeensReadToo.com
From the Coldecott Medal-winning author of such beloved storybooks as JUMANJI and THE POLAR EXPRESS comes another whimsical story in the form of PROBUDITI! With beautiful illustrations and a premise that any child will love, this is another storybook that's sure to please.
When Calvin receives two tickets to see Lomax the Magnificent, a famous magician and hypnotist, for his birthday, he knows just who he'll take with him--and it' More...
From the Coldecott Medal-winning author of such beloved storybooks as JUMANJI and THE POLAR EXPRESS comes another whimsical story in the form of PROBUDITI! With beautiful illustrations and a premise that any child will love, this is another storybook that's sure to please.
When Calvin receives two tickets to see Lomax the Magnificent, a famous magician and hypnotist, for his birthday, he knows just who he'll take with him--and it' More...
Feb 07, 2012
Analissa
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This is another one of Van Allsburgs funny and clever stories, that keeps you hooked until the end. It wasn't my favorite of his but it would be very funny to a child. These two boys think, through out the entire story, that they hypnotized someone and that they would be in big trouble had they not found out how to change her back to normal. The illustrations in the story where more symmetrical compared to other Van Allsburg books. The story was pretty long, but the ending made it worth its whil
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Nov 09, 2011
Laura
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I really enjoyed reading this title to my third grade classes. While it makes a great read aloud, there are a few points that just don't quite work. The plot jumps jarringly at times, I don't care for the cover, and I wish CVA had dropped in a few visual clues to support the final twist. The plot and the final twist were well done and I liked that the book centered on hypnotism.
Solid purchase for an elementary school collection; great addition to a CVA collection.
Solid purchase for an elementary school collection; great addition to a CVA collection.
Dec 30, 2011
Simon
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This book was strange in a good way. Although the cover illustration, while really good and well done, is not the main focus of the story. It should have been of the main characters or something.
The book has a great moral lesson and a strange sibling rivalry going on. It also can show you who your real friends are.
The title was kind of hard to pronounce but it was significant none the less, even though the main character couldn't find it useful because he forgot it :P
The book has a great moral lesson and a strange sibling rivalry going on. It also can show you who your real friends are.
The title was kind of hard to pronounce but it was significant none the less, even though the main character couldn't find it useful because he forgot it :P
Jan 24, 2010
Mary
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Calvin doesn't want to do anything with his, except play pranks on her. When his mother gives him tickets to see a magician/hypnotist, he takes his friend and they make their own hypnosis device. They use it on his little sister turning her into a dog. But they can't get her to stop, so they try to get the hypnotist's help but they are too late. They drag her home and throw water on her and scare her. This causes him to lose out on his birthday meal and cake.
Jan 12, 2009
Susan
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What can I say? I haven't read anything by Chris Van Allsburg that I didn't like.
He has to be at the top of my list of children's book authors and illustrators. You have to admire someone with so much talent, at least I do.
This book if quite funny. All of Chris Van Allsburgs books seem to have a mystery in them that is revealed.
He has to be at the top of my list of children's book authors and illustrators. You have to admire someone with so much talent, at least I do.
This book if quite funny. All of Chris Van Allsburgs books seem to have a mystery in them that is revealed.
Feb 16, 2008
Tina
rated it: 
I've always found Van Allsburg's art somewhat disturbing for children's books. I'm so used to kids' books with the bight saturated colors and the nonthreatening pictures of people and animals. So when I see Van Allburg's pictures with their sepia tones and vaguely sinister looking people I am somewhat put off.
The story of Probuditi is actually unobjectionable. It is the story of a young boy who tries to hypnotize his sister and the sister who turns the tables. But there is one More...
The story of Probuditi is actually unobjectionable. It is the story of a young boy who tries to hypnotize his sister and the sister who turns the tables. But there is one More...
Feb 03, 2012
Stacy
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The cover under the sleeve has a stamp of a rectangle with a swirl. Some of the pictures are in a boarder but some are full bleed. The art looks to have been done in pen with a black and brown colored pencil. The words are all on the left side of the page in bordered boxes. The text does not seem to be fancy in any way.
Nov 07, 2011
Andrea
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This was a beautifully illustrated book about two boys who go to a show and get the idea to hypnotize one of the boy's sisters. She acts like a dog and finally falls asleep as the boys are trying to figure out how they will explain this situation to her mother. When she wakes up, she is fine... but was she hypnotized...
Sep 05, 2011
Kellee
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Trudy is my hero!
Trudy, like most girls with older brothers, feels left out, so she finds a tricky way to get the boys to let her play with them.
This fun story with a background of extraordinary artwork by Chris Van Allsburg= great book!
Trudy, like most girls with older brothers, feels left out, so she finds a tricky way to get the boys to let her play with them.
This fun story with a background of extraordinary artwork by Chris Van Allsburg= great book!
Sep 14, 2010
Jennine
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I was initially attracted to this book because of the compelling cover illustration. The brown and white pencil illustrations give the story an old-fashioned feel while the plot of brother and sister rivalry make it appealing to most children.
Oct 15, 2011
Kaylee
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Probudit, was just really boring! There was no color, and the story just seemed to drag on. Maybe a boy with a sister would like this story because the boy hypnotized his sister into being a dog. Overall I am not a fan of this book.
May 17, 2009
Lesley
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I think I'd give this one a 3.5 if available. Not among my favorite Van Allsburg books, but still, a good one. Enjoyed the sepia tone of the illustrations, and the ending was priceless!
Oct 10, 2011
Jennifer
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Missed this Van Allsburgh when it was published! A great story in typical VA style. Wonderful illustrations. Loved how little Sis Trudy has the last laugh...
Jan 23, 2009
Farida
rated it:
The picture of the little girl on all fours lapping up milk killed any possible enjoyment I might have gotten out of this book. Tant pis.
