TEACHER'S PET

Morris Gleitzman is a natural as he reads his own story of Ginger, a young girl who is filled with well-justified anxiety concerning the authority figures in her life. Teachers, principals, parents, in fact almost everyone over four feet tall, seem bent on the destruction of the things that make Ginger feel good about herself. A bright girl with a remarkable vocabulary of nonsense swear words, Ginger embarks on a campaign to find homes for a community of stray dogs. With his uncanny knack for entering the mind of a 10-year-old, Gleitzman, bestselling Australian author of middle-readers' books, delivers another fast-moving story in which a child is responsible for solving her own dilemma and, in doing so, learns how to navigate a hazardous adult world. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 05]