Herbie Jones and Hamburger Head - Softcover

Suzy Kline, the author of nineteen previous Horrible Harry books and four books about Song Lee, lives in Willington Connecticut with her husband, Rufus. Suzy and Rufus have been married for thirty-eight years. They met in the state where they both grew up: California. Suzy grew up in Berkeley and Rufus in Sacramento. Suzy graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in European history. She met Rufus at the Davis campus while attending that campus for a year. They got married and lived in different places, including Canada, before settling into Connecticut, the state they now call home.

Suzy taught in 5th and 6th grades at Shannon Elementary School in Richmond, California for 3 years, and 2nd and 3rd grades at Southwest Elementary School in Torrington, Connecticut for 24 years before retiring this past June. She now enjoys writing full-time and visiting schools and libraries. The couple share their home with two cats, Teeter and Hoag. They have two daughters, Jennifer and Emily, and four grandchildren: Jake, Kenna, Gabby and Saylor. A fifth grandchild is due in September, 2006. Suzy's mother just turned 96. She dedicated her most recent book, Horrible Harry Takes the Cake to her.

Suzy and Rufus enjoy attending UConn football and basketball games, and Suzy uses the UConn library as a reference for her writing facts.

 

Grade 2-4--In the fifth Herbie Jones adven ture, he and his less-civilized friend Ray acquire a dog as they accidentally foil a bank robbery. The dog belonged to the robber, and is so flea-bitten that the boys call him "Hamburger Head." Herbie wants to keep him, but his fa ther dislikes all dogs; it takes the rest of the story for H. H. to win the heart of Mr. Jones. This is supposed to be a re alistic, funny story, but the robbery at tempt is not believable, and the at tempts at humor fall flat. The writing is fluffy and filled with slang, running over the tops of events, people, mo tives, and feelings without detail or depth. There are great numbers of boy- wants-dog stories that are far better than this one.
-Carolyn Jenks, Oyster River Elementary School, Durham, NH
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