Author/Illustrator: Peter Catalanotto
Publisher: Atheneum, 2012
Genre: fiction
Themes: curiousity, humor, real-life super-heroes
Age Level: 4-8
Opening: He was Question Boy, squinting hard against the rising sun. His boots scraped the ground. His cape fluttered in the breeze.
Synopsis: From the publisher: It’s a factual face-off in this superhero picture book. Question Boy wants answers. He lives for them. But none of the town’s action heroes—Oil Man, Paperboy, Police Woman—can satisfy Question Boy’s heroic need to know! Enter Little Miss Know-It-All. She has an answer for every who-what-where-when-and-how…and what she doesn’t know she simply makes up.
Why I like this book: What a grand idea to have these two, whom we all know so well, meet up and battle it out. I am a collector of random facts myself so this hits me square in the heart! The watercolors have a real but funky feel to them; I have to wonder what kind of paper Catalanotto uses. Also among the town’s super-heroes are Garbage Man and Mailman – how could I not appreciate this book!
Resource/Activity: play Trivial Pursuit; Have the students compete in finding the answers to a list of questions in the reference section of the library – no googling! Read off a fun-fact list at the beginning of the school week and see who can recount any at the end of the week; Fun-fact show-and-tell hour – let students have fun sharing ones they find on their own.
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julie rowan-zoch 