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Nothing Ever Happens On 90th Street Review
User Submitted Nothing Ever Happens On 90th Street ReviewsMay 5, 2008 Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street Nothing Ever Happens On 90th Street by Roni Schotter is about a girl named Eva who has a journal and always jots in it when she sees something happen on 90th street. Eva was sitting on the stairs and waiting for something to happen on 90th street. Then Mr.Sims told her, "Everything is a stage even 90th street." Mr.Moely told her that there's always a new way with words. Then Eva started thinking putting the pencil up to her mouth should I scrawl about this? Then Eva went to go to sit back down on the stairs. Just then the door slammed from the building it was Alexis Leora. She nodded to Eva. . Eva was thinking what if Alexis met someone. Eva tried to think who that person was but she only imagined Spanish soup. Then Eva opened her eyes and Ms.Martinez was standing next to Eva. Ms.Martinez handed Eva a cup of soup. Then Ms.Martinez told Eva some writers always need some soup. Nothing was happening on 90th street and Eva wanted to try to make something happen but she had no ideas. Eva sighed. She looked down and ate her half eaten Danish. Just then Eva came up with a big idea. What if she broke her Danish into tiny little pieces. Birds where flying every where and crashed into the pizza man. Then Eva picked up her pencil really fast and started to write again. When the pizza man fell Alexis helped him up and started to like each other. The pizza man was still in the street and the limo driver said "Get out of the street." The person in the limo was Sondra. Mr.Martinez said "Can I have your autograph Sondra?" Mr.Sims cat got scared and ran up the tree and people were making him come down and he came down. "I'm sure 90th street has a solution." She tried to imagine who that person was but she couldn't. Then the pizza man and limo driver shook hands. Eva opened her notebook and read her story and it was a good story, Eva told herself it would only be better if she rewrote it. Every day something very exciting happens if you look for it. Eva is trying her hardest every day to find that exciting thing she wants to see. She never gives up. She is a people person and always knows what people are doing. Maybe no one sees what Eva sees because she is looking very strong. I liked the way when Eva is trying her hardest to find interesting things that she really wants to see. By Mikayla January 24, 2008 Good book to get kids' ideas flowing Too often, students don't think they have anything to write about. This was a very cute story that can be used as a springboard about what could happen in their own neighborhoods. October 9, 2007 I don't get it... I bought this book as a companion for a lesson on writing development from a writing program that I love and use. I set up for the lesson then read this book to my students. It was a drag...It was boring...It was disjointed...we didn't get it. It seemed to lack a point. The new title could be "No Really...Nothing ever happens on 90th Street...I Mean It!" Now the illustrations were great! I love the loose style of the artist. I wish the author had developed the story better. I wished this teacher had previewed the book better. July 26, 2007 great for teaching creative writing This book's beautiful pictures and descriptions provide models of good narrative writing, and the actual situation-- writing where first you think there's nothing to write about-- is great for reluctant writers... March 8, 2007 Long winded This is a very long story for kids. My daughter, who delights in reading with me for up to an hour at a time, could not sit through even four pages of this book. I would have forced the issue if I had felt it was a great read and she was just not focused but I couldn't get into it either. Expect loooong wordy passages and little plot movement. I would maybe recommend it for an older elementary age child who needs some help with their creative writing (that's what the story is about)but I wouldn't really recommend it otherwise. There are so many other more interesting books out there! May 13, 2006 Blase Becomes Passe, or New Tudes for Bored Moods "Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street" is really two books in one. Although the book works as a whole, the first half is compelling, memorable and unique; the happy, goofy second half is merely fun. As she introduces her characters' dilemmas, sorrows, and idiosyncracies, Roni Schotter is remarkably poetic and poignant. When these characters collide (both literally and figuratively) in the book's second half, Schotter combines slapstick action, romance, and, above all, a kind of melting pot cockeyed optimism, exemplified by the films of Frank Capra. Throw in the can-do spirit of Andy Hardy, and the improbable resolutions of "I Love Lucy," and you have a spirited slice of American popular culture. The main character is young Eva, a winsome pre-adolescent student assigned to "write about what you know." Eva knows her street best, but she finds nothing worth writing about--until a melange of struggling neighbors offer Eva writing advice that reflects their lives and ways of keeping hope alive. Mr. Sims, the aging, unemployed actor, tells Eva that she's an important part of the scene, and that she need only watch for details. Mr. Morley, whose "mousse was missing something," softly says "Try to find the poetry in your pudding. There's always a new way with old words." Flexible dancer Alexis Leora, "who could hold an extremely long leg up against her ear like a one-legged woman," urges Eva to "stretch" the truth: As Leora herself might do, she says: " Use your imagination. If your story doesn't go the way you want it to, you can always stretch the truth. You can ask `What if?' and make up a better story." The advice fits the characters, and we see Eva-in-process, her scribbled words inspired by the native wisdom of these down-and-out artists and dreamers. The illustrations--collages by Ms. Kyrsten Booker-are phenomenal. The three main comfreres are shown descending the same staircase, and the cut and pasted objects and patterns have a visual and thematic integrity. The background for Mr. Sims hints at footlights, drama, and a proscenium arch. When lonely Alexis is introduced, her long legs are echoed by the vertical grain of the wooden staircase and the climbing vines of the background wallpaper. Like abstract art (although much more comprehensible for its young readers), the compositions use multiple perspectives and the time compression to convey the action that occurs in the second half: Briefly, a baby's dropped ball trips up a pizza delivery man, who finds floating-heart love with the concerned Alexis. The bicycle spill causes a traffic jam, from which emerges a famous soap-opera heroine, who ultimately offers Mr. Sims a job. Sims' scared cat "Olivier" knocks some coffee into Mr. Morley's mousse (inventing a popular new drink-"mocha"), and when Olivier gets stuck in a tree, Morley, the fish merchant, and soup maestro Mrs. Martinez concoct a three-course meal that lures the finicky cat. Eva, using the power of "What if" imagines a restaurant combining their talents, and so the 90th Street Caf? (Home of Great Ideas"), a great story, and financial solvency are born on Eva's street. Although this is a superb book, the wild, fast-paced ending breaks the quiet, wise tone of the first half. As Mrs Martinez says, action makes a story better, but the fortuitous and simultaneous happenings on 90th street seem slightly contrived, as if a demographic-minded movie producer demanded a crowd-pleasing ending. With some restraint, the resolution would be more convincing: Things do happen on "nowhere" streets and forgotten neighborhoods. These may be highly visible, or noticed only by those who know how to see. A reminder of this second way of observing would have strengthened the book's premise, and infused it with even more originality. Still, this is one of the best- written and -illustrated books I've read this year. Ms. Schotter's trusts her young audience's emotional intelligence, and her narrative is subtle, psychological, and shows a knack for "new ways with old words," just as Brooker finds new uses for old images. At its best, the book fulfills one of the goals of the Transcendentalist philosophers: Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. August 24, 2000 A Great and Useful Book! This is a wonderfully imaginative book filled with lively characters and surprising events. I've read it to my class and they've asked for it again and again. Even more importantly, it has stimulated and improved their writing skills and inspired them to try their own version of this story. A great help in the classroom, and, a lot of fun! January 8, 2000 A Wonderfully Entertaining and Educational Book A fun romp full of wonderful characters, plus helpful tidbits to improve children's writing. A multicultural and intergenerational story in an urban setting, in which the soap opera star Saundra Saunderson and the fish store owner Mr. Chang come together with many other colorful neighbors to create a community on 90th Street. Eva, the child writer, records and participates in all the action and finally comes up with an extraordinary topic for her school assignment. A funny, great and useful tale to teach and read, whether you live on 90th Street, in the suburbs, or in the country. September 8, 1999 I find this book hard to follow and the text, "choppy." The subject matter of this book is something that is of tremendous use in an elementary classroom. However, the text is choppy, and the subject hard to follow from one idea to the next. Even the illustrations fail to provide a common thread woven throughout the book. The collage style pictures are beautiful to look at, but confusing to tie together, especially when paired with the choppy text. November 28, 1998 Wonderful for elementary writing strategies. As Eva records in her writer's notebook she believes she has nothing to write about. Her colorful neighbors, however, prove this to be quite far from the truth. Each rich character offers sound writing strategies that Eva applies to her writing. A lonely retired actor encourages her to look for the details all around. The prima ballerina who never smiles invites Eva to stretch her imagination. Mrs. Martinez advises Eva to add spice to her writing as she does to her Mexican soup. Mr. Morley suggests she ask herself, " What if?" All the events add up to a story that Eva has recorded for all to enjoy. An additional benefit is the new business created as a result of hilarious circumstances. Writing teachers will return to this delightful story again and again to encourage children to try the same stratgies in their own writing. For more Nothing Ever Happens On 90th Street reviews click here.
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