Survival School

by Frank Asch, John Kanzler (Illustrations)

Molly, Jake, and Dexter are just trying
to survive in a cat-eat-mouse world!
Dexter is the newest class pet in Miss Clark's classroom. Just as brother and sister mice Molly and Jake are getting settled inside the walls of P.S. 42 and Miss Clark's room, Dexter escapes from his cage and turns the classroom upside down. Pretty soon he's in the company of Molly and Jake, and it's their job to show him how to survive in the world outside his cage. Teaching "survival school" isn't as easy as it seems, and before long, Jake, Molly, and Dexter find themselves caught in a series of survival lessons.
Will they ever escape the mousetrap set by the janitor, Mr. Hobbs? Will a run-in with sewer rats mean the end of the line? And will Big Gray, the mean bully cat, show up and claim his revenge on Jake?
Survival School is now in session and you
won't want to miss a single lesson!

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Frank Asch is an American children's writer, best known for his Moonbear picture books.

Asch published his first picture book, George's Store, in 1968. The following year he graduated from Cooper Union with a BFA. Since then he has taught at a public school in India, as well as at a Montessori school in the United States, conducted numerous creative workshops for children. He has written over 60 books, including Turtle Tale, Mooncake, I Can Blink and Happy Birthday Moon. In 1989 he wrote Here Comes the Cat! in collaboration with Vladimir Vagin. The book was awarded the Russian National Book Award and was considered the first Russian-American collaboration on a children's book.

Asch lived in Somerville, New Jersey where he and his wife home-schooled their son Devin.

He currently lives in Vermont with his wife, Jan.

Reviews

[zapkode · Rating 5 out of 5]

{My Thoughts} – Dexter is the new class gerbil in Miss Clark’s Class. It’s his very first day in the classroom and he manages to escape from his cage. He ends up running behind a bookshelf and squeezing into a hidden hole into the wall. Once he gets through the hole he meets Jake and Molly.

Jake and Molly feel for Dexter so they decide to help him. They play a game I guess you called call it called Survival School. Jake and Molly try their best to teach him how to survive without being cared for by a human. This is difficult for Dexter though because he has only ever been cared for by humans.

They go on a pretty interesting adventure in this book, just like the previous two. And of course the adventure wouldn’t be complete without a visit from Big Grey again. If you want to know exactly what happens you’ll need to read the book. I am sure if you enjoyed the first two that you will enjoy this one as well.

I really enjoyed this book and how it was about friendship. Mainly, it focused around the survival of friendship and the love one has for their family. I am sure that any child that enjoys reading about adventures and closeness to one’s family with some added animals as the characters for entertainment reasons, could get a lot out of this book. It’s well written as are the previous two and it’s a very nice story that I found really enjoyable.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading about one chapter every couple days. Its such a sweet story and the few illustrations inside the book are beautiful!