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(A childrens Book Review) STUART’S CAPE Stuart’s cape is a hilariously descriptive adventure
of a young boy named Stuart and his long, smooth cape. A top notch book written by Sara Pennypacker, published by Scholastic and has hysterically cartoony drawings illustrated by Martin Matje. In this publication Stuart and his family have just shifted to Punbury and so Stuart now has to go to his new school for third grade and that’s the main problem. Stuart is a good worrier and so he keeps on worrying about his first day of school and thinks to himself “What if I couldn’t find the bathroom, what if no one wanted to be his friend, what if all his number fives came out backwards, what if he was the shortest kid in third grade…hundreds of things could go wrong.” Stuart was good at worrying, not at waiting. He wanted an adventure. He then thinks about all his heroes like Whizzer the Space Boy and then it hits him “Adventures only happen to people with capes!” But his mom and dad objected to the idea. Then he came across stuff from his great Uncle Nestor’s magical act. Inside was a bunch of old ties, a rusty stapler and one purple sock. Combining these he made a cape but not just any cape… this was a magical cape. And whenever Stuart would put on the cape something magical would happen…for REAL! But only he could experience them and that’s the reason his parents didn’t believe him. They thought he was just pretending but he wasn’t. And with the help of his cape he can do mostly anything. He could play with his living toy animals, grow toast the size of a mattress, he could fly and other exciting stuff but can it help him make a friend? Stuart’s hobby is to collect trash or as he likes to call it ‘His extremely valuable things’ such as a mannequin arm, an oven door, a dead Christmas tree, a cracked toilet seat, a box of bent coat hangers, false teeth and other stuff but it had been taken by the trash collector. It had taken him years to collect it. His Aunt Bubbles was an old, over sized lady who was a baker and sold angel and pound cakes. Stuart has a pet cat called one tooth that is a very lazy cat and just likes to stretch itself and sleep. Stuart’s dad was a carpet cleaner and his mom worked at a beauty shop. Sara modeled Stuart after her young nephew, who asked her to make him a cape explaining that he was sure more interesting things would happen while he wore it. Stuart’s Cape has been commented by the School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, the Booklist, and Kirkus Reviews and is also one of the New York Public Library’s 100 Titles for reading. You’ll also find that to this book there is no age limit can be read and enjoyed by anyone boy or girl and even if you’re old you will still like it. And one last thing, don’t forget to read Stuart’s Advice Column at the end of the book.
Published: January 13, 2008