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Gooney Bird Greene #6
Gooney Bird and All Her Charms
Gooney Bird Greene returns for more adventures in the sixth book in this sweet and accessible chapter book series from the two-time Newbery Medal Winner Lois Lowry. Each book takes place during a month of the school year in Mrs. Pidgeon’s second grade classroom and explores a different subject. In this latest book set in March, Gooney Bird’s class learns about the human body with the help of a real skeleton.
Previous titles have explored: GOONEY BIRD GREENE, October: Storytelling GOONEY BIRD AND THE ROOM MOTHER, November: Thanksgiving and vocabulary GOONEY THE FABULOUS, December: Aesop’s Fables GOONEY BIRD IS SO ABSURD, January: Poetry GOONEY BIRD IS ON THE MAP, February: Geography
Previous titles have explored: GOONEY BIRD GREENE, October: Storytelling GOONEY BIRD AND THE ROOM MOTHER, November: Thanksgiving and vocabulary GOONEY THE FABULOUS, December: Aesop’s Fables GOONEY BIRD IS SO ABSURD, January: Poetry GOONEY BIRD IS ON THE MAP, February: Geography
163 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 14, 2013
80 people are currently reading
200 people want to read
About the author
Lois Lowry
145 books22.9k followersTaken from Lowry's website:
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always seemed to have their heads under the raised hood of a car. That left me in-between, and exactly where I wanted most to be: on my own. I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination.
Because my father was a career military officer - an Army dentist - I lived all over the world. I was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in my mother’s hometown: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when I was eleven. High school was back in New York City, but by the time I went to college (Brown University in Rhode Island), my family was living in Washington, D.C.
I married young. I had just turned nineteen - just finished my sophomore year in college - when I married a Naval officer and continued the odyssey that military life requires. California. Connecticut (a daughter born there). Florida (a son). South Carolina. Finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband left the service and entered Harvard Law School (another daughter; another son) and then to Maine - by now with four children under the age of five in tow. My children grew up in Maine. So did I. I returned to college at the University of Southern Maine, got my degree, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing I had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when I had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks.
After my marriage ended in 1977, when I was forty, I settled into the life I have lived ever since. Today I am back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living and writing in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Bandit. For a change of scenery Martin and I spend time in Maine, where we have an old (it was built in 1768!) farmhouse on top of a hill. In Maine I garden, feed birds, entertain friends, and read...
My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story: that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.
The Giver - and Gathering Blue, and the newest in the trilogy: Messenger - take place against the background of very different cultures and times. Though all three are broader in scope than my earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern: the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment.
My older son was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world. But it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth.
I am a grandmother now. For my own grandchildren - and for all those of their generation - I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another."
"I’ve always felt that I was fortunate to have been born the middle child of three. My older sister, Helen, was very much like our mother: gentle, family-oriented, eager to please. Little brother Jon was the only boy and had interests that he shared with Dad; together they were always working on electric trains and erector sets; and later, when Jon was older, they always seemed to have their heads under the raised hood of a car. That left me in-between, and exactly where I wanted most to be: on my own. I was a solitary child who lived in the world of books and my own vivid imagination.
Because my father was a career military officer - an Army dentist - I lived all over the world. I was born in Hawaii, moved from there to New York, spent the years of World War II in my mother’s hometown: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from there went to Tokyo when I was eleven. High school was back in New York City, but by the time I went to college (Brown University in Rhode Island), my family was living in Washington, D.C.
I married young. I had just turned nineteen - just finished my sophomore year in college - when I married a Naval officer and continued the odyssey that military life requires. California. Connecticut (a daughter born there). Florida (a son). South Carolina. Finally Cambridge, Massachusetts, when my husband left the service and entered Harvard Law School (another daughter; another son) and then to Maine - by now with four children under the age of five in tow. My children grew up in Maine. So did I. I returned to college at the University of Southern Maine, got my degree, went to graduate school, and finally began to write professionally, the thing I had dreamed of doing since those childhood years when I had endlessly scribbled stories and poems in notebooks.
After my marriage ended in 1977, when I was forty, I settled into the life I have lived ever since. Today I am back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, living and writing in a house dominated by a very shaggy Tibetan Terrier named Bandit. For a change of scenery Martin and I spend time in Maine, where we have an old (it was built in 1768!) farmhouse on top of a hill. In Maine I garden, feed birds, entertain friends, and read...
My books have varied in content and style. Yet it seems that all of them deal, essentially, with the same general theme: the importance of human connections. A Summer to Die, my first book, was a highly fictionalized retelling of the early death of my sister, and of the effect of such a loss on a family. Number the Stars, set in a different culture and era, tells the same story: that of the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.
The Giver - and Gathering Blue, and the newest in the trilogy: Messenger - take place against the background of very different cultures and times. Though all three are broader in scope than my earlier books, they nonetheless speak to the same concern: the vital need of people to be aware of their interdependence, not only with each other, but with the world and its environment.
My older son was a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. His death in the cockpit of a warplane tore away a piece of my world. But it left me, too, with a wish to honor him by joining the many others trying to find a way to end conflict on this very fragile earth.
I am a grandmother now. For my own grandchildren - and for all those of their generation - I try, through writing, to convey my passionate awareness that we live intertwined on this planet and that our future depends upon our caring more, and doing more, for one another."
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 7, 2016
Summary:
Gooney Bird's second grade class is studying the human body. As a surprise, her uncle Dr. Oglethorpe brings in a skeleton for them to use while they research. This becomes a school wide event to label and investigate every part of Napoleon Bony-part. Unfortunately, Napoleon has an enemy and is stolen from the front of the school. Gooney Bird leads her class in the mystery to find out who the bone napper is and return Napoleon back to Dr. Oglethorpe.
My thoughts:
I enjoy the Gooney Bird series. In my opinion it is a right before Junie B. Jones series. The reading is a little simpler and there are more pictures within this series. It's great for a beginning chapter book reader. Much like Nate The Great, Gooney Bird leads you through learning some new things and enjoying what you read. Gooney Bird is charming. She's funny, self confident, and very intelligent. She also is a great friend and classmate. I prefer her to other heroines because she is not doing questionable things and trying to get away with things. She also has a distinct set of style that adds for fun dress up time with my daughter (who is still too young to read on her own).
Gooney Bird's second grade class is studying the human body. As a surprise, her uncle Dr. Oglethorpe brings in a skeleton for them to use while they research. This becomes a school wide event to label and investigate every part of Napoleon Bony-part. Unfortunately, Napoleon has an enemy and is stolen from the front of the school. Gooney Bird leads her class in the mystery to find out who the bone napper is and return Napoleon back to Dr. Oglethorpe.
My thoughts:
I enjoy the Gooney Bird series. In my opinion it is a right before Junie B. Jones series. The reading is a little simpler and there are more pictures within this series. It's great for a beginning chapter book reader. Much like Nate The Great, Gooney Bird leads you through learning some new things and enjoying what you read. Gooney Bird is charming. She's funny, self confident, and very intelligent. She also is a great friend and classmate. I prefer her to other heroines because she is not doing questionable things and trying to get away with things. She also has a distinct set of style that adds for fun dress up time with my daughter (who is still too young to read on her own).
February 15, 2014
The book's title with its play on the word charms pretty much foretells the book's plot. In this, the sixth in the series, second grader Gooney Bird Greene helps her classmates solve a mystery involving a skeleton. Her great-uncle loans the skeleton, affectionately named Napoleon BonyPart to Mrs. Pidgeon's class since they are studying the human body. The ever-creative and irrepressible Gooney Bird decides that he needs to move around the school as part of their study. Her classmates love the idea and pose him in all sorts of positions and places, including the library. The book's illustrations allow readers to see Napoleon in all his glory as well as the various students enjoying his visit. As is the case with all of these books, readers will relish the humor and word play as well as the unique student personalities. Some of the passages in which the students learn about digestion and the heart are a bit too teacher-y for my taste, but still, fans of the series will be readily embrace this one.
March 27, 2024
3.5 I thought this book was better than the last couple of Gooney Bird books. It was a good book to end the series on, although I think Ruby was sad the series was ending. I actually let Ruby finish reading the book since it’s an easier read for her than the book she is currently reading at night.
July 6, 2019
Teaches children about the human body.
February 20, 2017
Lois Lowry does it again. I can't wait to read this aloud to a passel of second graders!
December 29, 2013
I'd ordered Gooney Bird and All Her Charms with my 6 year old niece in mind. I've been collecting books to send her and I expect that this will go over well. It's my first time to read a Lois Lowry Gooney Bird adventure and it's an easy series to enjoy.
Gooney Bird loves hats, glasses, dressing up, but in a way that reminded me a bit of Pippi Longstocking because she chooses her accessories with a sense of fun and purpose. She has a serious hat that she wears for important meetings - such as her meetings with the librarian, the school principal, etc. She's not shy but she's not pushy either. She speaks her mind but listens to her classmates. She's comfortable with the limelight but doesn't have to always be the star. She's the active, self assured, funny girl that I imagine young girls would love to spend time with, befriend, emulate.
In this particular story, Gooney Bird's second grade class is studying the human body. Gooney Bird's great uncle lends the class a skeleton as a teaching aid and the students gradually adjust to having a skeleton and are excited to share what they learn about the different systems of the body. The book mixes the biology lessons with humor - and does this very well. There are opponents to this new teaching tool and a disaster of sorts that requires teamwork from all the classmates to resolve.
The one thing that I didn't enjoy was how the Keiko, the young Japanese American girl, was always scared, worried, easily upset. I'd much rather have a Japanese girl with a samurai spirit instead of a scared nervous and hyper feminine type.
I look forward to reading the other books in the series and sharing this with my niece Sofia.
Gooney Bird loves hats, glasses, dressing up, but in a way that reminded me a bit of Pippi Longstocking because she chooses her accessories with a sense of fun and purpose. She has a serious hat that she wears for important meetings - such as her meetings with the librarian, the school principal, etc. She's not shy but she's not pushy either. She speaks her mind but listens to her classmates. She's comfortable with the limelight but doesn't have to always be the star. She's the active, self assured, funny girl that I imagine young girls would love to spend time with, befriend, emulate.
In this particular story, Gooney Bird's second grade class is studying the human body. Gooney Bird's great uncle lends the class a skeleton as a teaching aid and the students gradually adjust to having a skeleton and are excited to share what they learn about the different systems of the body. The book mixes the biology lessons with humor - and does this very well. There are opponents to this new teaching tool and a disaster of sorts that requires teamwork from all the classmates to resolve.
The one thing that I didn't enjoy was how the Keiko, the young Japanese American girl, was always scared, worried, easily upset. I'd much rather have a Japanese girl with a samurai spirit instead of a scared nervous and hyper feminine type.
I look forward to reading the other books in the series and sharing this with my niece Sofia.
August 9, 2016
Sixth book in Gooney Bird series. Second graders are studying Human Body, and - of course - Gooney Bird knows someone who can help. Great Uncle Walter is a human anatomy professor and can lend the class a skeleton. Napoleon Bonaparte (bony parts - get it??? ha ha)
Dressed and displayed in various areas for his brain, digestive system, muscles, lungs and oh, that nasty Mrs. Gooch who disapproves of everything finally 'steals' him. Now a mystery to find Napoleon - solved by the discarded clothing reeking of her perfume.
Bye to Gooney and the 2nd grade crew for now. Bless Mrs. Pigeon's patience!!!
Dressed and displayed in various areas for his brain, digestive system, muscles, lungs and oh, that nasty Mrs. Gooch who disapproves of everything finally 'steals' him. Now a mystery to find Napoleon - solved by the discarded clothing reeking of her perfume.
Bye to Gooney and the 2nd grade crew for now. Bless Mrs. Pigeon's patience!!!
October 18, 2014
Eccentric Gooney Bird and her second grade class are studying the human body. Gooney Bird's uncle brings in a skeleton from his anatomy class. The children plan places to display the skeleton and to highlight its features around the school. They must work together to solve a mystery when the skeleton is stolen.
This book would be appropriate for readers between seven and nine years old. Readers that enjoy contemporary realistic fiction and mysteries may also enjoy this book. It would be appropriate to introduce children to anatomy related vocabulary words and to help children develop narrative skills.
This book would be appropriate for readers between seven and nine years old. Readers that enjoy contemporary realistic fiction and mysteries may also enjoy this book. It would be appropriate to introduce children to anatomy related vocabulary words and to help children develop narrative skills.
August 23, 2014
Gooney Bird and All Her Charms by Lois Lowry, illustrated by Middy Thomas – Lois Lowry is one of the few who can make me chortle and learn about body systems at the same time… I loved this book. Think it would fit well with my Y4 class study of body systems… might inspire the kids! Fabulous mystery that was mingled into the story with a nemesis that I’m hoping students will understand and find humorous… Plus it was quite cute how a charm bracelet connected throughout the book… just love Lois Lowry’s creations.
October 8, 2014
It's been a long time since Gooney Bird has landed in book world, so long in fact, I'm having trouble finding copies of her other adventures in area libraries. Too bad, as I loved Gooney, her teacher, her classmates, and the story, all wrapped nicely together. I want to recommend this to second grade teachers as a read aloud, but I think they may enjoy it more if they had the rest of Gooney Bird's story.
November 1, 2015
In this fifth book in the Gooney Bird series, she and her second grade classmates are studying the human body. When Gooney's great uncle lends the class a human skeleton, they have fun displaying it around the school highlighting the various body systems that they are studying. This book contains a lot of information on the human body and it's main systems, wrapped in a slight story. For fans of the other books, or young students studying the human body.
March 26, 2014
I read this to my 3 year old grandson and he enjoyed it a great deal. The author does a nice job of integrating a lot of facts about the human body systems in a humorous story. I could see why it is a two-time Newbery Medal Winner based on his interest and the thought provoking conversations we had as we read it.
August 18, 2014
I expected much better from Lois Lowry. The first two-thirds of the book is completely the normal goings-on of a 2nd grade class (even though this class happens to have a human skeleton on loan to them for a month). No conflict to be seen until the book is almost ended. Maybe 7-year-olds would not mind this, but I kept wondering when the story was going to start!
July 4, 2015
I like these Gooney Bird books. I think they have a good balance of teaching children to be happy with who they are, accept those who are different and teach kids something at the same time. I think they're good for above and below those in the second grade, although I definitely wouldn't call them middle school reading. Although, you know, read what you want. As long as you're reading.
September 3, 2016
I love Gooney Bird Greene! In this book, Gooney and her classmates have a human skeleton visit their school while they are studying human anatomy. The class and skeleton have many adventures together.
August 22, 2014
Gooney Bird and her second-grade class are studying the human body. With the help of Great Uncle Walter's skeleton, the class shares their knowledge with the entire school. This book is a bit long for most second-graders to tackle by themselves but I think it would be a fun read aloud selection.
June 3, 2016
So the principal is now talking poorly about another students parent? In front of Gooney Bird? This is not ok. A child reader should not be reading that a principal does something like this. Particularly a young impressionable reader.
January 28, 2014
Cute Children's Book
February 8, 2014
Themes of tolerance for differences and similarities.
May 27, 2014
My third graders and I truly enjoyed this book. We had fun acting it out although the principal gave me strange looks the day I dressed up as the heroine.
June 9, 2014
Another cute, funny story by Lois Lowry. Even touches on a crazy parent who wants everything banned, including the use of a skeleton to help the kids learn body parts. Very contemporary.
May 19, 2017
Cute.
October 24, 2014
Would be a very entertaining book for lower elementary students (2nd-5th).
January 3, 2024
I found parts of it "humerus"
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews