Bingo Book # 20

We’re one week into Book Cover Bingo–how’s everyone enjoying the game so far? Some game stats: we currently have 126 players and no Bingos yet. All 15 prizes still up for grabs! It sounds like several of you are getting close though. . .

Our next book is Pirate Mom by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Stephen Gilpin. Pirate Mom is a Step into Reading book about a mom who is hypnotized into believing she’s a pirate and her son Pete who has to figure out how to get his regular mom back before her pirate-self causes too much trouble. I loved this bit that Deborah shared in her Creative Spaces interview about a special significance to an award that Pirate Mom received:

“Pirate Mom won the Maryland Blue Crab Award for Transitional Fiction, and I got my first-ever engraved plaque! This has special significance for me because although the book got a few very good reviews, it also got a pretty bad one. And of course the bad one came at a time when I was at the end of my rope–almost out of money, feeling like there was no way I could ever make this writing career thing work, completely despondent–and it just about decimated me. Then the book went on to get picked up by Scholastic, sell over 160,000 copies, and win this award. The plaque serves as a reminder to me that one person’s opinion is just one person’s opinion, and that I shouldn’t get too caught up in reviews (especially bad ones!).”

Writer and educator Cassandra Reigel Whetstone also has a teacher guide for Pirate Mom available on her website.

7 Responses to “Bingo Book # 20”

  4. eurini

    i have two lines with three to go, and one with two.

    i love this so much! 😀 <3

  6. Jenn (From the Mixed-Up Files)

    Joan, the star in the center is a free square. It automatically counts as crossed off, so you only need to get the 4 covers that fall in line with the star (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) to get a Bingo, rather than other lines where you need 5.