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Excuses #5
The Truth Is...: The Truth About My Unbelievable School...
Enter this School at Your Own Risk!
Henry is sharing school secrets with his new classmate as they embark on a whirlwind tour. Mysterious inventions lurk, the library is a labyrinth, the cafeteria requires ninja skills, and some of the teachers may be monsters! Is this strange school to be believed? or is there an even more outrageous surprise in store?
Henry is sharing school secrets with his new classmate as they embark on a whirlwind tour. Mysterious inventions lurk, the library is a labyrinth, the cafeteria requires ninja skills, and some of the teachers may be monsters! Is this strange school to be believed? or is there an even more outrageous surprise in store?
Paperback
First published June 26, 2018
About the author
Davide Calì
246 books135 followersDavide Calì is a Swiss-born Italian writer of picture books and graphic novels, primarily for children and young adults. He lives in Italy. His work has been published in twenty-five countries and translated into many languages.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
April 4, 2018
Why have I only just discovered the genius that is the partnership between author Davide Cali and illustrator Benjamin Chaud? This book takes you on a tour of one of the coolest schools ever! I could easily see kids graduating from this school and then moving on to finish their high school years at Hogwarts. That is the level of cool we’re talking about here!
Henry’s teacher asks him to give the new girl a tour of the school. Henry, fully decked out in his pinstriped suit with coordinating socks and tie, proceeds to show the new girl around his “there really isn’t anything to see here” school.
Henry nonchalantly climbs the ladder to feed the class pet fish, a ginormous jellyfish. The pair wander past the school’s music room, art room and math corner before taking a peek at the secret science experiment that’s almost finished.
The shortcut to recess takes them through a twisty clear tube reminiscent of the one that ended Augustus Gloop’s tour of Mr Wonka’s factory. Henry’s fellow classmates are playing in a tree that includes a very ho-hum roller coaster.
Between recess and lunch they drop in on some more classes, and after lunch they check out the school library and wonder what the teachers get up to in the teacher’s lounge. After a few more stops the pair make it back to their classroom just in time to go home. Now that was good timing! There’s even a surprise at the end of the book that I certainly didn’t see coming and made me chuckle.
This kid’s book is so imaginative. There’s such a disconnect between the boredom of showing the new kid around school and the wild illustrations that show just why this school is so unbelievable. Unbelievably awesome, that is! The illustrations are detailed and funny.
While kids will love the illustrations and marvel at all of the incredible things they wish their school would have on offer, adults will probably even appreciate them ever more. I was delighted to come across some fun allusions to Creature from the Black Lagoon, Smaug, Pippi Longstocking and The Phantom of the Opera. Once you’ve read the book I’d encourage you to carefully check each illustration as there are some scattered clues to the surprise ending for you to find.
I got to the end of this book and then immediately subscribed myself at the publisher’s website, went to order everything my library has from this duo and told Mum she’s going to love this book. I need to either recreate or move in to this school’s library!
Henry’s teacher asks him to give the new girl a tour of the school. Henry, fully decked out in his pinstriped suit with coordinating socks and tie, proceeds to show the new girl around his “there really isn’t anything to see here” school.
Henry nonchalantly climbs the ladder to feed the class pet fish, a ginormous jellyfish. The pair wander past the school’s music room, art room and math corner before taking a peek at the secret science experiment that’s almost finished.
The shortcut to recess takes them through a twisty clear tube reminiscent of the one that ended Augustus Gloop’s tour of Mr Wonka’s factory. Henry’s fellow classmates are playing in a tree that includes a very ho-hum roller coaster.
Between recess and lunch they drop in on some more classes, and after lunch they check out the school library and wonder what the teachers get up to in the teacher’s lounge. After a few more stops the pair make it back to their classroom just in time to go home. Now that was good timing! There’s even a surprise at the end of the book that I certainly didn’t see coming and made me chuckle.
This kid’s book is so imaginative. There’s such a disconnect between the boredom of showing the new kid around school and the wild illustrations that show just why this school is so unbelievable. Unbelievably awesome, that is! The illustrations are detailed and funny.
While kids will love the illustrations and marvel at all of the incredible things they wish their school would have on offer, adults will probably even appreciate them ever more. I was delighted to come across some fun allusions to Creature from the Black Lagoon, Smaug, Pippi Longstocking and The Phantom of the Opera. Once you’ve read the book I’d encourage you to carefully check each illustration as there are some scattered clues to the surprise ending for you to find.
I got to the end of this book and then immediately subscribed myself at the publisher’s website, went to order everything my library has from this duo and told Mum she’s going to love this book. I need to either recreate or move in to this school’s library!
July 27, 2022
This is certainly one of the quirkiest illustrated books I have read for some time and Benjamin Chaud's illustrations with their wacky characters certainly bring the school to life.
Henry is asked by his teacher to show his new classmate, a long-haired young lady, around the school and he begins by showing her the feeding of the class pet in its tank.
He takes her then to the music room where a really cool teacher with Elton John-style spectacles is on the electric guitar bopping around the room where six girls proved some musical accompaniment. And then it is the art room which has a Picasso style lady in charge - she looks like she has just come off one of Pablo's canvases - and the pupils are all at their easels painting, one producing a very Magritte type picture!
The math corner has a white-haired Einstein-like character doing equations on the blackboard and Henry tells his companion, 'It's okay if you don't understand the equation ... nobody does.' And in the science room there is a way-out experiment going on with a Heath Robinson style machine in operation!
Going through the hall is chaos as Henry tells her that it gets 'a little wild during recess'. They take a short cup through a series of outside tunnels that run down the side of the school and they end up in the playground where Henry tells her, 'There's really isn't anything to see here. This is correct looking across the playground at ground level but up in the massive oak tree there are various pods in which activities are taking place.
In the gym the PE teacher is apparently an Olympic champion and she demonstrates it by balancing more than 30 pupils, including Henry and his friend and the dog that is accompanying them on their tour, on her shoulders. The swimming instructor is 'kind of strange' as he is a species of the deep.
Into the canteen goes Henry and there he encounters chaos again with the mash potatoes causing most of the problems. But then it is to my favourite room, the library where there are books galore with pupils all over the place reading while a school m'am type character sits at the enquiry desk.
The teachers' lounge and the janitor's closet are visited where the incumbent keeps well aware of what is going on at this unbelievable school by viewing a large multi-panelled screen. Finally a visit to the principal's office where she floats around in mid-air with everything on her desk also floating around before they dash back to their classroom in time to pickup the night's homework.
And then it is time to depart so Henry offers his friend the bus but she declines with 'No, my mum's picking me up ...' and the most unusual, even unbelievable, mode of transport sums up the wackiest school we have ever seen.
It really is a pleasurable book that after one read, almost begs another ... so I gave it another one!
Henry is asked by his teacher to show his new classmate, a long-haired young lady, around the school and he begins by showing her the feeding of the class pet in its tank.
He takes her then to the music room where a really cool teacher with Elton John-style spectacles is on the electric guitar bopping around the room where six girls proved some musical accompaniment. And then it is the art room which has a Picasso style lady in charge - she looks like she has just come off one of Pablo's canvases - and the pupils are all at their easels painting, one producing a very Magritte type picture!
The math corner has a white-haired Einstein-like character doing equations on the blackboard and Henry tells his companion, 'It's okay if you don't understand the equation ... nobody does.' And in the science room there is a way-out experiment going on with a Heath Robinson style machine in operation!
Going through the hall is chaos as Henry tells her that it gets 'a little wild during recess'. They take a short cup through a series of outside tunnels that run down the side of the school and they end up in the playground where Henry tells her, 'There's really isn't anything to see here. This is correct looking across the playground at ground level but up in the massive oak tree there are various pods in which activities are taking place.
In the gym the PE teacher is apparently an Olympic champion and she demonstrates it by balancing more than 30 pupils, including Henry and his friend and the dog that is accompanying them on their tour, on her shoulders. The swimming instructor is 'kind of strange' as he is a species of the deep.
Into the canteen goes Henry and there he encounters chaos again with the mash potatoes causing most of the problems. But then it is to my favourite room, the library where there are books galore with pupils all over the place reading while a school m'am type character sits at the enquiry desk.
The teachers' lounge and the janitor's closet are visited where the incumbent keeps well aware of what is going on at this unbelievable school by viewing a large multi-panelled screen. Finally a visit to the principal's office where she floats around in mid-air with everything on her desk also floating around before they dash back to their classroom in time to pickup the night's homework.
And then it is time to depart so Henry offers his friend the bus but she declines with 'No, my mum's picking me up ...' and the most unusual, even unbelievable, mode of transport sums up the wackiest school we have ever seen.
It really is a pleasurable book that after one read, almost begs another ... so I gave it another one!
October 1, 2018
If you think the school on BoBorp is strange, wait until you read this book. Henry, clad in a black suit and red tie, is asked by his teacher to give his new classmate a tour of the school. First stop is the class pet, an enormous jelly fish, Henry must climb a ladder to feed. Next is the music room, the art room, the math corner where no one understands the equations, followed by science and recess. Throughout the tour, the young girl seems completely unfazed by everything she sees, no matter how strange it is, and it is strange. The swimming teacher looks like an amphibian, the science class is building project that looks like something a mad-scientist would invent, and the Principal's office is underground, arrived at by boat. So why is the young girl so completely unperturbed, almost bored with everything she see? The explanation comes at the end, and my kids really cracked up. This book is a little different, and it didn't appeal to all the kids I read it to, but the ones who got it (and they were the older kids in the group), really liked it. The illustrations are interesting, and somewhat Gothic, but nothing should scare most young readers, but will tickle the funny bone of some. There are literary nods throughout to other books, although most kids won't get them. This is indeed a fun frolic through a different kind of back to school book.
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March 25, 2020O Henrique tem uma colega nova e é preciso mostrar-lhe todos os recantos da escola. Numa visita alucinante, descobrem os segredos das salas, dos corredores e do recreio. Há invenções misteriosas, uma biblioteca que é um labirinto, puré de batata explosivo ao almoço e professores que bem podem ser monstros.
CDU:
087.5-053.5
821.131.1-311.3
Livro recomendado PNL2027 - 2019 2.º Sem. - Literatura - dos 6-8 anos - dos 9-11 anos - Inicial - Mediana
http://pnl2027.gov.pt/np4/livrospnl?c...
CDU:
087.5-053.5
821.131.1-311.3
Livro recomendado PNL2027 - 2019 2.º Sem. - Literatura - dos 6-8 anos - dos 9-11 anos - Inicial - Mediana
http://pnl2027.gov.pt/np4/livrospnl?c...
April 1, 2019
I can see having fun reading this with a young school goer, especially if there is a younger sibling who wants to know what it is all about.
December 18, 2021
همهی کتابهای این مجموعه تم طنز دارن و البته پر از ماجراهای عجیب و غریبن. این جلد رو از جلدهای دیگهی این مجموعه بیشتر دوست داشتم.. هم اتفاقاتش جالبتر بود (حس هاگوارتز رو میداد یه جاهایی)، هم پایانش غافلگیرکننده بود
February 15, 2022
نقاشیهاش خیییلی قشنگ بودن.
March 20, 2023
This is an amazing picture book that is great for beginning readers. "The Truth About My Unbelievable School ..." is a book about a new student getting a tour of her new school. This school is a bit more unusual than most schools. Henry shows the new girl all the different parts of the school such as the secret experiment room, the hallway shortcut, the janitor's closet, and much more. At the very end, we find out a twist about the new student when she gets picked up. This book only has one short sentence per page which is would be not intimidating to beginning readers. Since it is also only one sentence it is easy to keep your place and not get lost. The words used in the book are fairly simple with a few new words for beginning readers. The pictures in the book are super detailed and fun. The pictures help add to the unusualness of the school since if you just read the words it would seem like a normal school. This book would be great to give to the students to practice reading or to start reading. I would recommend this for the grades 1st+ since they would be able to read it fully by themselves. It is a super fun read!
March 18, 2018
While schools have many hidden dangers, Henry's school takes the cake for that sort of thing. As he takes a new classmate around on a tour, it's clear that this is no ordinary institution of learning. Fans of the previous titles featuring Henry and his classmates will know that he is prone to exaggeration--or at least that's what those around him think. There are stampedes in the hall and shortcuts using plastic tubes, a library with countless shelves arranged in a maze-like fashion, several odd, very odd teachers, and even a cafeteria in which mashed potatoes might be the most dangerous food to eat. By the end of the tour, readers will expect the new girl to be completely freaked out by everything she's seeing, but she never pats an eye, and they'll see why in the illustration on the last page. This was a nice little twist. I enjoy little books like these, with rich, imaginative images, and a simple plot line.
July 7, 2018
This entertaining picture book takes readers on a fun tour of a new school. When you're a new student, a tour of your new building can look just as strange and mysterious. A new student might be missing his/her previous school and sizing up where he/she will fit in at the new school. This book uses humorous illustrations and an unusual tour to help new students realize that they do belong and they will make new friends and everything will be all right. This would be fun to share with kids getting ready to start a new school or maybe just returning from summer break. This could also make a great mentor text for young writers and artists to develop a tour of their own school building!
January 5, 2019
Very imaginative and interesting with FANTASTIC illustrations by Benjamin Chaud, but the small size of the book distracted me. I am not sure where I would put this treasure. I am not sure I could share it with more than one student at a time. I would have to say it is an additional purchase, though I suspect it will be well loved.
August 8, 2018
Lots of creative juices are flowing with this book. Could be the inspiration for the students to write their own clever versions. The copy I purchased is a bit on the small side for reading aloud to a class.
August 15, 2018
The young man gives the new student a tour of the school. Quite an interesting place. The illustrations provide humor to the simple tour and the new student provides a surprise ending to the day.
Use to discuss imagination and how different school areas are perceived.
Use to discuss imagination and how different school areas are perceived.
June 5, 2026
Excuse me, but is the illustrator some kind of mastermind? It's incredible! I never would have imagined the inside of the school as he drew it—so diverse, fun, and full of things to discover on every page!
June 7, 2018
You think the school's weird...wait until you see what happens at the end!
July 16, 2018
This is a fun book for kids. Henry goes to a very weird school and he is appointed to show a new classmate around.
July 18, 2018
Too cute!
August 6, 2018
The perfect book for going back to school; mostly funny and just a little bit true.
September 14, 2018
Cute and whimsical. Will put you in mind of Neil Gaiman...but not quite that good.
November 1, 2018
Reminds me a little of CBS school :)
November 4, 2018
What a wacky book of school adventures! Henry takes the new girl on a tour of the school. Nice twist at the end. Highly recommended for Grades 2-3.
November 7, 2018
This is one crazy, ghoulishly fun school.
January 20, 2019
I love the way Cali looks at things, and in this book, I love the way the library is portrayed! But, of course, the library is always my favorite room in any building!
April 1, 2019
This is about a boy who is showing the new girl around school.
February 28, 2020
Fun, with a throwback kinda vibe.
June 20, 2020
The illustrations are so imaginative! It’s incredibly fun to pour over all the details on each page.
September 21, 2020
Heck yes, put me in this school for a day, specifically in the teachers' lounge with that ginormous bowl of candy!
September 28, 2020
unique and surprising. wish font was bigger. would be fine for 2nd grade readers.
September 29, 2020
A boy shows the new student around the school which has some pretty incredible things to see.
March 26, 2023
The art is lovely but the story is a little lackluster. Too simple for older kids but hard for smaller ones to process effectively.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews