Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Miss Fox's Class Earns a Field Trip
Illustrator: Anne Kennedy
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
Albert Whitman & Company, 2010 ISBN: 978-0807551691
The kids in Miss Fox’s class very much want to go to Roller Coaster Planet for their next field trip. Miss Fox explains that it is going to coast $135 for the trip, and that the students are going to have to earn the money themselves.
When she hears about the field trip fund, Ms. Owl gives Miss Fox’s students a job. All they need to do to earn $20 is to clean Ms. Owl’s car so that it is spic and span when she has to drive the visiting author, Percy P. Possum, home.
Cleaning the car presents no problems for the students, but when the job is finished, the children accidentally get Mr. Possum wet. Twice! After they have paid for Mr. Possum’s cleaning bill the children only have $5 in their field trip fund. How very discouraging.
Then Young Bear suggests that the children should put on a play. With the help of family members, the children put on a splendid play and they raise $60. At the end of the performance Mr. Possum comes backstage to congratulate the cast. He slips on Raccoon’s costume and one of the lenses in his glasses breaks. That little slip ends up costing Miss Fox’s students $25 to repair Mr. Possum’s glasses. At this rate, the students are going to be all grown up before they have enough money to go on a field trip!
In this delightful Miss Fox title, Eileen Spinelli gives her readers a meaningful story about the trials and tribulations of fundraising. It takes tenacity and determination to raise money for a good cause, and sometimes it is not at all easy. With a sprinkling of math and loveable characters, this is a story that children are sure to appreciate.
