編輯推薦:"Nine-year-old Minneapolis resident Julia Gillian leads a comfortable urban life surrounded by caring parents and helpful neighbors. Her parents permit her to be on her own and take a nine-square-block walk for one hour with her devoted dog, Bigfoot. Each day, within these parameters, Julia Gillian explores her world. A pattern of repeated conversations, moods, and outcomes gives the child sufficient information to analyze the behavior of her neighbors, her dog, her parents, and herself. Her list of accomplishments includes making papier-maché animal masks and knowing how other people feel. When her parents insist that she finish reading a book about a boy and an old dog, she is sure it will have an unhappy ending and goes to great lengths to avoid it. Her neighbor tells her about her own demons and says that, "Sometimes the only way out is through," and Julia's self-absorption starts to recede as she discovers that she is not alone in being afraid. The illustrations of Julia Gillian's masks and supersize St. Bernard add a whimsical note to the book. Julia Gillian isn't the perky, smart-mouthed heroine one finds in many contemporary books. Instead, she is acutely conscious of achieving a new maturity that allows her to question authority and to assert herself-not bad for a nine-year-old."
--Lillian Hecker, Town of Pelham Public Library, NY
"For nine-year-old Julia Gillian, life in Minneapolis has been nearly perfect. But as the summer progresses, that changes. Her parents are taking summer classes, which means no picnics at the park; the stuffed meerkat that Julia wants to win in the claw machine at the hardware store seems to elude her at every try; and the newspapers her parents read are filled with depressing headlines. And then there's the book Julia does not want to finish because she suspects it will have an unhappy ending. This gently told tale shows how she learns to deal with these bumps in the road. At times, her parents' lax attitude toward Julia's unsupervised wanderings may seem unrealistic, and Julia herself is a bit of an odd duck whose friends are mostly adults (except for one large, loving dog).Yet readers will root for Julia, whose appealing, if quirky, personality comes out in the plentiful sketches as well as the text. The first of an intended series."
--Bina Williams
內(nèi)容簡介:Ten-year-old Julia Gillian knows everything about her quirky neighbors, her Minneapolis neighborhood, even the inscrutable claw machine in the back of the corner hardware store. The one thing Julia Gillian doesn't know is how the book she's reading is going to end. It doesn't seem as if it's going to have a happy ending, and that scares her. But Julia learns a little something about fear: sometimes you just have to work through it. And though bad things do happen sometimes, having good friends and family around you makes life a bit less scary - and much more fun.
朱莉亞吉利安,這個敏感、細心的小姑娘,對事物有著不同的觀念和想法,透過她的故事,大人們會看到小學(xué)生們都在想什么,而對于小學(xué)生來說,熟悉的故事內(nèi)容將引起孩子的共鳴和閱讀興趣。
朱莉亞吉利安是一個生活非常幸福的孩子,每天和自己寵物狗的散步時間讓她有時間仔細觀察身邊的人、事、物,對自己鄰居們的情況了如指掌,無法做到的是讀完一本在她看來已經(jīng)知道結(jié)果的故事書,她不明白,既然已經(jīng)知道結(jié)局不好,為什么還要看完呢?
也許鄰居說的對,‘Sometimes the only way out is through’。
沒有激烈的冒險環(huán)節(jié),也沒有高尚的英雄氣概,只有一個對事物充滿好奇的小女孩,以及圍繞在她周圍發(fā)生的各種趣事,還有一條可愛的大狗,簡單的大插圖,但就是這么簡單的故事,卻能引起小讀者的興趣,也真正能讓人心底充滿溫暖。
作者簡介:ALISON MCGHEE is the author of numerous books for both adults and young readers, including Snap and All Rivers Flow to the Sea, and the New York Times bestselling picture books Someday, illustrated by Peter Reynolds, and A Very Brave Witch, illustrated by Harry Bliss. She lives with her family in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she is known to frequent the Quang Restaurant and enjoy egg rolls and strawberry bubble tea.