Buttons
Buttons
3.8/5
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Buttons

Written and illustrated by Brock Cole
Physical book
$16.00
$15.20
5 - 10
Reading age
32
Page count
56
Words per page
~720L
Lexile measure
Mar 24, 2000
Publication date

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What's Buttons About

Publisher Summary

Brock Cole’s first picture book in nearly ten years Once there was an old man who ate so much his britches burst and his buttons popped one, two, three, into the fire. “Wife! Wife!” he cried. “We are undone! My britches have burst and my buttons are burnt, every one! After putting her husband to bed, the wife enlists the aid of her three daughters in replacing their father’s buttons. The eldest promises to find a rich man who will give her buttons in exchange for her hand in marriage. The second daughter decides to join the army for the sake of the buttons on a soldier’s uniform. And the youngest is going to run through the meadows with her apron held out before her, hoping to catch a few buttons falling from the sky. Which of these young ladies will succeed in restoring the family fortunes? The answer is the essential and satisfying stuff of fairy tales. Brock Cole’s whimsical prose and pictures make this original story feel like a hundred-year-old classic.

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    The Creative Behind the Book

      Brock Cole

      Brock Cole was born a year before the Second World War in a small town in Michigan. Because of his father’s work, his family moved frequently, but he never regarded these relocations as a hardship. “I thought of myself as something of an explorer, even though my explorations never took me very far. I had a deep and intimate acquaintance with woodlots, creeks, lakes, back streets, and alleys all over the Midwest.”He attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and received a doctorate from the University of Minnesota. After teaching philosophy for several years at the University of Wisconsin, he began writing and illustrating books for children.”I had always wanted to write, and I loved to draw. I had small children, who were a wonderful audience. Children’s books seemed a perfect fit.”His first book, The King at the Door, was published in 1979. Among his other picture books are The Winter Wren, The Giant’s Toe, and Alpha and the Dirty Baby.He now lives in Buffalo, New York, where his wife, Susan, teaches at the State University of New York. His sons both live in Athens, Georgia. Joshua teaches French history at the University of Georgia, and Tobiah is a painter and works as a waiter. Joshua is married to Kate Tremel, a potter and a teacher, and they have a little boy named Lucas.Brock Cole’s acclaimed first novel, The Goats, was published in 1987. It is set in the Michigan countryside of his childhood and captures the story of two loners’ struggle for self-identity and inner strength after being made the targets of a cruel prank. In a Horn Book Magazine editorial, Anita Silvey wrote: “The Goats reaffirms my belief that children’s literature is alive and thriving.” Betsy Hearne, editor of The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, lauded The Goats as “one of the most important books of the decade.”In Brock Cole’s second novel, Celine, sixteen-year-old Celine, a budding artist, is living with her young stepmother, only six years older than Celine herself, while her father is teaching in Europe. Celine dreams of escaping this situation, but she becomes involved with caring for Jake, her seven-year-old neighbor, who is going through his parents’ divorce.Since he began his writing career, Brock Cole and his wife have traveled a good deal, living for one year in Washington and another in Germany, as well as spending frequent summers in Greece and Turkey.”To be honest, I simply tag along after Susan. It’s her research which takes us all over the place. I enjoy it immensely, though. There’s something about sitting down to work at a rickety table in a strange city that clears the head. It’s the best thing for a writer, or for this one, anyway.”

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    Book Details

    ISBN
    9780374310011
    Publication Date
    March 24, 2000
    Publisher
    Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
    Page Count
    32
    Words Per Page
    56
    Audience
    Picture
    Reading Age
    5 - 10 years
    Est. Lexile® Level
    ~720L
    Est. Fountas & Pinnell Level
    ~Q
    ATOS® Book Level
    4.6
    Accelerated Reader® Points
    0.5
    Accelerated Reader Quiz
    36437
    Accelerated Reader Interest Level
    LG

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