Mrs. Millie Goes to Philly!
Kindergarten-Grade 2—Mrs. Millie loves to play with words. On a field trip to Philadelphia, she amuses her students by substituting words with similar sounds to get new meanings. For instance, the kids are asked to wear their name "badgers" rather than badges. One field trip rule is to hold "hens" with your buddy. She takes the youngsters to see the Liberty "Bull" and, at Betsy Ross's "mouse," they see a flag with "thirteen starfish—one starfish for each colony." The students respond by calling her silly, over and over again. This is a one-joke book that quickly becomes stale. Broad cartoon illustrations show a cow in the classroom ("Cow are you today?") or chickens on the bus ("We don't want any lost chickens!"). Mrs. Millie with her frizzy red head, dressed in red, white, and blue stars and stripes, and her animated students make one happy group. This book fails in its attempt to combine the attributes of Amelia Bedelia and Ms. Frizzle. Nothing is left to readers' imagination and there's little educational value.—Martha Topol, Traverse Heights Elementary School, MICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.