Horrible Harry And The Purple People (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

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.

 

Kline (Marvin and the Mean Words, p. 641, etc.) lets loose with the further adventures of Harry, who, in the last week of second grade, has become even more of a cut-up than usual. Miss Mackle is apparently spending the day (Kline is somewhat vague on the timing) reading Alice in Wonderland to the class. Harry insists there are invisible Purple People in the room; after he appears to tame a bee and find a lost lunch card with the ``help'' of the Purple People, his skeptical classmates start to wonder about his claims. Harry's announcement that a Purple Person will join them at their class tea party produces the book's only moments of suspense; the climax, in which Harry produces one of the Purple People by throwing grape juice on a classmate, is disappointing; then again, Kline isn't attempting to make grand statements or to pound in any major morals. A silly story that unfolds harmlessly. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 7-10) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.