When the TV Broke

by Harriet Ziefert, Mavis Smith (Illustrations)

When the television breaks, Jeffrey is forced to find fun and imaginative ways to entertain himself.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Harriet Ziefert grew up in North Bergen, New Jersey, where she attended the local schools. She graduated from Smith College, then received a Masters degree in Education from New York University.

For many years, Ziefert was an elementary school teacher. She taught most grades from kindergarten to fifth grade. "I liked it," she said, but she stopped teaching when she had her own sons. When her children were older, Ziefert wanted "a bigger arena" for her work. She went to work at a publishing company, Scholastic in New York City, developing materials for teacher's guides for kindergarten language arts and social studies programs.

"About twelve years ago," says Ziefert in a 1995 interview, "I tried to get a job as an editor, but no one would hire me as a trade editor. So I decided to write my own books." Since then, she has written several hundred books, mostly picture books and easy-to-read books. "I write books very quickly," she says, "in about twelve hours. I rewrite them three times over three days, and then they're done." She writes about twenty books a year.

Reviews

[Anna]

It's a Level 1 Easy Reader so I read it within minutes, but I really did enjoy the story. The illustrtions were alright. Dull colors and it had an illustration of an old time TV, but it's an old story from 1989 so it makes sense. It's basically about a boy who watches TV everyday until the day the TV broke and has to wait for the TV to get fixed and find things to do since he can't watch anything.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

I loved how the boy kept himself busy when the TV was gone to be fixed. He asked his parent everyday if the TV will come that day, but then eventually stopped asking and found ways to have fun without the TV. I liked how he found art supplies and made himself a little town out of boxes. When the TV finally came back he chose to stay with his creation instead of watching TV. I smiled at the end :)

[Pamela Powell]

Cute! Jeffrey loves to watch TV, so what does he do when the TV breaks? Reads to his sister, bakes cookies with Mom, and builds a cardboard town.

[Gospodyina]

No book for early readers should have this many errors. Ideally NO book should have this many errors, but I’m being realistic.

[Abbe Blank Peterson]

Favorite childhood book. Learned to read on this book.

[Jesse Baggs]

Super-cute 80s art for a serious nostalgia buzz

[T. Blake]

This is one of the books read by Mr Rogers on his show, so for me this was more of a read a long thing 😆

[Lavinia]

This book about a little boy and when his family's television broke. He watched it every day. When the TV broke his dad put it in the car, and he asked his mother every day if it was fixed and she said "not yet."

I liked this story a lot. My favorite part was when Jeffrey asked his mom if it was fixed.

[Deirdre K]

The first book Aidan read ALL BY HIMSELF without ever having heard it read to him.

He has since read it to everyone in the house, and to be honest, we're all a little sick of it, but I think he's not going to stop until his dad provides him with some cardboard boxes like Jeffery had.

[Diana Pettis]

What can kids do if the TV breaks well, Jeffrey finds a solution. Read to find out what Jeffrey will do when the TV breaks.