The Bookstore

Grade 4-6?This witty fantasy's creative use of wordplay is reminiscent of Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth (Knopf, 1972). Cervantes, the mouse inhabitant of an antiquarian bookstore, literally lives on words. His home lies behind the books in the reference section, and he eats delicious-sounding terms peeled out of cookbooks. His favorite activity is finding verbal ways to torment the resident cat. One day, Cervantes's world is disturbed by a human browser and he finds refuge in a beautiful leather-bound volume. Perusing Chapter One, the mouse makes two astonishing discoveries. First, when words are strung together, they make a story?and, strangely, this realization is a key that allows him to take part in the story he now reads. Transported to a medieval English monastery, he meets and has an adventure with Sigfried, a young scribe with a poor vocabulary. Along the way, both of them learn much about the real meaning of words. Cervantes is a charming narrator. While Sigfried is likable, his habit of substituting terms like "whosits" and "dingus-whatsit" for words he doesn't know does become annoying. Still, the tale is enjoyable, and will inspire young readers to think carefully about their own use of vocabulary.?Mary Jo Drungil, Niles Public Library District, ILCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.