Weslandia

Rating:
Summary: Celebrates the Intellect's Triumph
Review: "Weslandia" proves a great read for younger children for several reasons.

First, the exploits of young, intellectual, nonconformist Wesley are celebrated without apology or pandering---a refreshing triumph of mind over the slothful, herd mentality stressed in some classrooms.

Second, Paul Fleischman, the author, revs up the vocabulary instead of "dumbing" down the text to appeal to all. Young readers not only get the message to follow their own compass but the added bonus of having to work on their vocabulary.

Finally, Kevin Hawkes, the illustrator, fills every page with wonderful and vivid paintings that depict both the grand scale of Wesley's deeds but the subtle nuances as well. (Notice the pizza impaled on the dart board for instance.)

Grab a copy and carve out some time to read and talk to your youngster about the value of being true to oneself, the wisdom of work, and the value of solitude.

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Summary: Jalyn's Weslandia Book Review
Review: Have you ever dreamt of starting you own civilization? Well that's just what Wesley did in the book Weslandia. Weslandia is the story of a boy that planted flowers called "swists".
Wesley gets food, clothing, juice, and even friends from the Swists plants . He starts his own civilization. He makes a garden. Wesley's neighbor went through his garden and looked at his flowers and said that he should pull out the weeds, but Wesley's garden doesn't have weeds in it. Everything in Wesley's garden is used to for something.
I like the book because Wesley creates his own civilization, and I think that's cool. I think you should read this book because it is a good book.

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Summary: ...Weslandia book review
Review: Have you ever heard of Weslandia? Well, it's a good book about a boy who nobody likes. His name is Wesley, and he does not want the same hair cut as everyone else, which is having half their head shaved. He also hates professional football and pizza.
For his summer project Wesley creates his own civilization, and he names it Weslandia. His entire civilization is possible because of the large plants that begin growing in Wesley's back yard. Wesley names them "Swists" and uses them to make stuff for his games, clothing, hats, food, juice, shelter, a hammock, mosquito repellent, sun tan lotion, and more.
People start to notice Wesley. They spy on him and think he's a dork for a few minutes, but then they change their opinion. In the end of the story, Wesley goes back to school and he has no shortage of friends.
Weslandia is a good book. I think it's a good book because he is kind of a dork that nobody likes in the beginning, but in the end everybody likes him.

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Summary: Denny's Weslandia Book Review
Review: Have you ever read the cool book called Weslandia? If you haven't you should. It's about a boy named Wesley that's an outcast. He decided to change that over the summer. He made a garden where his crop grew very large. It became Weslandia and Wesley began to do things that most people wouldn't do.
Some of the things he did are make clothing and a shelter out of the plants. From the oil of the plants he made ink, sunscreen, and bug repellent. He made a sundial from the flower on top of the stem. Wesley made juice from the plants roots. He also made a game, and an 80-letter alphabet for Weslandia. He sold the sunscreen and bug repellent in little bottles for $10 per bottle. I guess you can say that he lived on these plants.
When I heard this story, I really liked it, and I think you would too.

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Summary: Ever think about creating YOUR own civilization?
Review: I would like to have met Wesley if he was a real kid. He looks like Harry Potter without the scar, but unlike that famous book hero, Wesley LOVES to learn, read and create. Wesley doesn't fit in with the culture he's in, so for his summer break, he decided to create his own staple food crop and found a civilization of his own -- all in his backyard. This kid is smart and resourceful. From his mysteriously appearing plant "Swist," he makes his own food, drink, clothing, insect repellent, time system, games, tree house, develops a language system, ink, and more. I think the best things he found when he created his new land, Weslandia, were friends who admired his handiwork.

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Summary: No man's an island, but this kid's an entire world
Review: Let's say that you'd like to teach your kids about civilizations and how they come about. You're tempted to just go out and purchase that fabulous Sid Meier video game, "Civilization", but you suspect that a) You'd just be doing it for yourself and b) That's not the best way to teach five-year-olds. Voila! Author Paul Fleischman (or shall I say, NEWBERY award winning author Paul Fleischman) and artist Kevin Hawkes (sorry Kevin... no Newberys for you) have joined together to bring us a history of the founding of Weslandia in its book of the same name. The only picture book I've ever seen where kids that create their own fantasy worlds pale in the face of kids that put those worlds into practice.

Wesley isn't like other boys, a fact that drives his parents mad. He's an inventor who regularly refuses to join the crowd and fit in. With school over for the summer, Wesley sets about coming up with a project for the warm months. Thanks to his sarcastic father's throwaway remark about burgeoning civilizations, "I'm sure you'll use that knowledge often", the boy constructs a brilliant scheme. With the help of traveling seeds, Wesley will create and maintain his own unique civlization. New plants begin to grow and thrive in our hero's backyard (plants that would have been plucked as weeds if the nosy neighbor had his way). In time, the plants have flowered and produced fruit. With these as his base, Wesley refines his new food source. He tends his crops and, with their soft inner fibers, weaves new clothes for himself. He creates a sundial that uses the number of petals on the plant's flowers and creates games made from the many parts of the plants. You get the idea. By the end of the summer, Wesley has learned that not only can a person make themselves happy through invention, they can also win themselves some followers.

The book's deeply inventive premise gives the book that rare honor of being fascinating to both children and adults. Kids will love the premise of a child as founder of a new lifestyle. Parents will be impressed by the clever ways in which author Fleischman has displayed how civilizations throughout the world began. Flischman's world is utterly believable. After putting down the book, you have a hard time not coming to the conclusion that Weslandia could easily exist with relatively few changes. As is often the case with brilliant picture books, however, "Weslandia" would only be half as good as it is without the stylings of artist Kevin Hawkes. Hawkes has carefully included Wesley's eighty letter alphabet on the endpapers of this book. He's created Wesley's original game (a kind of Quidditch on stilts). He's even endowed his somewhat Harry Potterish hero with beautiful birds, colors, and flowers. The pictures here are sometimes realistic, sometimes silly, but always impressive. Tiny delightful details spot this book, and by its end kids will have a hard time leaving beloved Weslandia. They may even go so far as to create their own version of it.

If you've read any of Paul Fleischman's other books (such as "Seek" or "Joyful Noise: Poems For Two Voices") then you already know about his originality as a writer. For those of you who haven't encountered his works before, "Weslandia" will come to you as a delightful surprise. For a good storytime pairing, consider reading it with Jerdine Nolan's, "Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm". It's one of those picture book treasures you'll be amazed and delighted to discover.


Rating:
Summary: An entertaining Tom Sawyer/Robinson Caruso hybrid.
Review: Weslandia is a wonderful hybrid of Robinson Caruso, Tom Sayer and Anthropology 101.

Wes is a geek. He doesn't like pizza, soda or what passes as acceptable fashion among his peers. Not surprising, as a result, Wes is the victim of a lot of childish abuse. With summer upon him he decides to turn over some soil in his back yard to see what interesting plants might be seeded there. This is the beginning of a marvelous adventure. His experiment produces but one plant-an unknown, unusual, highly prolific plant that takes over the back yard. Wes cultivates the plant, begins to understand it's potentialities, and starts the process of developing his own "civilization" based on the plant. It provides food, shelter, clothing and the inspiration for much invention-time pieces, a new mathematical system, a new language with a new alphabet. As time goes on Wes takes on the aspects of a Robinson Caruso in his own, isolated world.

The story takes on a bit of a Tom Sawyer aspect as Wes' tormentors begin to get interested in all the goings on in his back yard. Before long, they are out there with Wes, cultivating the plant, eating it's fruit, dressing in the garb of this new world, being absorbed into this new civilization.

The story is absorbing. The illustrations are wonderful-lush and colorful. There are recurring "characters" that appear in the world-basically flora and fauna, who appear in each panel, often semi camouflaged, providing younger children with a "where's-Waldo" opportunity of discovery. This makes this book a very good family read that can accommodate a wide age range.

All in all one of the better children's books I've read in quite a while.

Rating:
Summary: An entertaining Tom Sawyer/Robinson Caruso hybrid.
Review: Weslandia is a wonderful hybrid of Robinson Caruso, Tom Sayer and Anthropology 101.

Wes is a geek. He doesn't like pizza, soda or what passes as acceptable fashion among his peers. Not surprising, as a result, Wes is the victim of a lot of childish abuse. With summer upon him he decides to turn over some soil in his back yard to see what interesting plants might be seeded there. This is the beginning of a marvelous adventure. His experiment produces but one plant-an unknown, unusual, highly prolific plant that takes over the back yard. Wes cultivates the plant, begins to understand it's potentialities, and starts the process of developing his own "civilization" based on the plant. It provides food, shelter, clothing and the inspiration for much invention-time pieces, a new mathematical system, a new language with a new alphabet. As time goes on Wes takes on the aspects of a Robinson Caruso in his own, isolated world.

The story takes on a bit of a Tom Sawyer aspect as Wes' tormentors begin to get interested in all the goings on in his back yard. Before long, they are out there with Wes, cultivating the plant, eating it's fruit, dressing in the garb of this new world, being absorbed into this new civilization.

The story is absorbing. The illustrations are wonderful-lush and colorful. There are recurring "characters" that appear in the world-basically flora and fauna, who appear in each panel, often semi camouflaged, providing younger children with a "where's-Waldo" opportunity of discovery. This makes this book a very good family read that can accommodate a wide age range.

All in all one of the better children's books I've read in quite a while.

Rating:
Summary: Dustin's Weslandia Book Review
Review: Weslandia is the best book I have read in a year. The main character is Wesley. He is a young boy that does not like pizza, pop, or the latest style of having half-shaved hair. He also finds professional football dumb.He is a nerd-type boy with no friends at first. All that changes when he makes his own civilization for his summer project. He even makes his own 80-letter alphabet.
I like the book and its pictures. The pictures are my favorite part. It is a cool book to read.