Hedgie Blasts Off!

More than anything Hedgie wants to be an astronaut and travel into space. He gets his chance the day the geyser, Big Sparkler, starts to sputter and fade, disappointing all the alien tourists, who fly to the tiny planet of Mikkop to throw coins into Big Sparkler and look at the strange flowers that survive on its sparkles.

Because only Hedgie can fit into a small space ship, he flies to Mikkop, where he not only finds out what is clogging up Big Sparkler, but fixes the problem in a most unusual way. He returns home a hero amid cheers from the aliens and the scientists back at the Star Lab.

With an amazing gatefold illustration of Hedgie bursting out of Big Sparkler this is not only one of Jan Brett's most inventive books, but it's one of the funniest. Fans will love the unusual setting as they laugh along with a wild cast of characters, including comic aliens, canine scientists and bird reporters.

So jump on a spaceship and take a ride to Big Sparkler. You'll be glad you made the trip

Author: Jan Brett
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Published: 09/07/2006
Pages: 32
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 10.16h x 10.30w x 0.43d
ISBN: 9780399246210
Audience: Ages 4-8

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 3.4
Point Value: 0.5
Interest Level: Lower Grade
Quiz #/Name: 109624 / Hedgie Blasts Off!


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Review - Children 08/15/2006 pg. 836
Booklist 08/01/2006 pg. 82
School Library Journal 09/01/2006 pg. 159
PW Notes and Reprints 08/07/2006 pg. 61
Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2007 pg. 19 - Marginal, Seriously Flawed

About the Author
With over thirty four million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books. Jan lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew up. During the summer her family moves to a home in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.

As a child, Jan Brett decided to be an illustrator and spent many hours reading and drawing. She says, I remember the special quiet of rainy days when I felt that I could enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. Now I try to recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real.

As a student at the Boston Museum School, she spent hours in the Museum of Fine Arts. It was overwhelming to see the room-size landscapes and towering stone sculptures, and then moments later to refocus on delicately embroidered kimonos and ancient porcelain, she says. I'm delighted and surprised when fragments of these beautiful images come back to me in my painting.

Travel is also a constant inspiration. Together with her husband, Joe Hearne, who is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jan visits many different countries where she researches the architecture and costumes that appear in her work. From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I visit and use them as a starting point for my children's books.

With over thirty four million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books. Jan lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew up. During the summer her family moves to a home in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.

As a child, Jan Brett decided to be an illustrator and spent many hours reading and drawing. She says, I remember the special quiet of rainy days when I felt that I could enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. Now I try to recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real.

As a student at the Boston Museum School, she spent hours in the Museum of Fine Arts. It was overwhelming to see the room-size landscapes and towering stone sculptures, and then moments later to refocus on delicately embroidered kimonos and ancient porcelain, she says. I'm delighted and surprised when fragments of these beautiful images come back to me in my painting.

Travel is also a constant inspiration. Together with her husband, Joe Hearne, who is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jan visits many different countries where she researches the architecture and costumes that appear in her work. From cave paintings to Norwegian sleighs, to Japanese gardens, I study the traditions of the many countries I visit and use them as a starting point for my children's books.