Janet Stevens began drawing as a child. Pictures decorated her walls, mirrors, furniture and school work -- including math assignments. While this didn't always sit well with her teachers, it was what she loved to do.
Janet’s father was in the Navy therefore she moved a great deal and attended many schools while growing up.
After graduating from high school in Hawaii in 1971 she landed a job creating Hawaiian designs for fabric. The printed fabric was then made into aloha shirts and muumuus. After she graduated from the University of Colorado in 1975 with a degree in Fine Arts Janet began compiling a portfolio of “characters”, bears in tutus, rhinos in sneakers, and walruses in Hawaiian shirts. In 1977, she attended “The Illustrator's Workshop” in New York City, where it was suggested that her characters might find a home in a children's book. Luckily for libraries (and children's book readers in general), publishers agreed and her first book was published in 1979.
Janet is the author and illustrator of many original stories and frequently collaborates with her sister, Susan Stevens Crummel. Her trademark humorous animals also accompany the texts by such authors as Eric Kimmel and Coleen Salley,
Janet has received numerous book awards, including a Caldecott Honor Award, Time Magazine’s Ten Best Children’s Books , the Wanda Gág Best Read-Aloud Book. Child Magazine’s Best Books of the Year.. Janet's books have been named ALA Notables and have repeatedly appeared on the New York Times Best Seller List.
She is particularly proud of her state book awards, voted on by children -- which include Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, New York, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Nebraska and Washington. Janet has received the prestigious Texas Bluebonnet Award twice.
Plaidypus! I love that! The book was okay, but not up to the high quality of the title, I’m afraid. Maybe I thought it was going to be more witty than sweet? Hard to say.
The illustrations are decent, but the story is about a wretched child that shows no appreciation of her stuffed toy, a gift from her grand mother. The cute play on words that the story goes round and round reiterates that the child will never learn to appreciate anything. The ending is the worst. She is rewarded with a deformed stuffed animal which looks more like a Frankenstein toy than a cherished stuffy from a dear loved one. Overall the message is that if people give you love in the form of a gift, abuse it, lose it, never break the pattern and they will keep enabling you to take advantage of them. Very sad book indeed.
We read this in the Kindergarten class I work with - it is my absolute favorite!!! The pladypus is so adorable! It's just a fun story and we sing a great song with this story, which makes it even better!
This is a fun book! We can teach opposites with this book. The story is about a girl and her "plaidypus", a stuff animal made by her grandmother. She plays and goes everywhere with it. She loses it and founds it each time. However ones the "plaidypus is lost and nobody can find it.
The first word of the title is the best part of this book. The rest is meh. Rhythmic and repetitive which is good for young children but flat on plot and characters.
Janet Stevens never disappoints me with her remarkable illustrations. This book is worth reading for the pictures alone. Add to it the cute story by her sister, Susan Stevens Crummel, with a repeating story line, you have a winner for many young children. Those children who love to help say aloud what is happening next will have happy hearts as you read this predictable book aloud. Mama (or is it Auntie?) from the Epossumondas books makes an appearance as the grandma who sewed the plaidypus from grandpa's shirt. The book is just warm and cute in multiple ways. I am so grateful to the people who select the books for Broward County Public Libraries for keeping me supplied with books that are so worth my time.
I absolutely love this sister team of author and illustrator. They are are a fabulous team This story finds a girl and her adventures and misplacements of her stuffed Platypus made from plaid fabric. It has heart and reminds of how we loved / love our stuffed animals
This book is good for 3-5 year olds. A little girl keeps losing her toy plaidypus... in the end she finds him with a missing arm and a missing eye but promises to never lose him again !
A little girl receives a stuffed platypus made by her grandmother out of one of her grandfather's old plaid shirts. She names it "Plaidypus" and it becomes her constant companion. However, she keeps losing him at various places such as the park, the supermarket and the lake. While this book has lovely pictures, catchy rhyming and a universal theme of loving a stuffed friend, I am not a fan of the fact that this little girl keeps carelessly losing her stuffed friend, but seemingly faces no consequences because of it. If I were her caregiver, I would stop taking her back to places to look for the stuffed toy after a while.
Plaidypus Lost Main Characters: The little girl POV: Third Person
Summary: “Plaidypus Lost,” is a cute story written by Susan Stevens Crummel, about a little girl and her stuffed animal. The story begins when the little girl’s grandma makes a platypus out of her grandfather’s old t-shirt. The little girl is so excited to have Plaidypus as her friend and she vows never to lose him. The little girl goes to the park and realizes when she gets back home that she has lost Plaidypus. She goes back to the park to look for him and when she finds him in the sand, she vows to never lose him again. Next, the little girl goes to the market and when she gets home, she realizes that has lost Plaidypus. She goes back to the market and when she finds him on a shelf, she vows to never, ever lose him again. Then, she goes to the lake and when she gets home, she realizes that she has lost Plaidypus. She goes back to the lake to look for Plaidypus and when she finds him, she vows to never, ever, ever lose him again. Finally, the little girl is riding in the car and holding on to Plaidypus as he flies out of the car window. The car goes over a bump and she loses Plaidypus. She looks and looks for him, but cannot find him anywhere for several days. She decides to make signs so that if someone finds him, they can return him to her. Some days later, someone returns Plaidypus to the little girl, but Plaidypus is beat up. He’s dirty, missing a button eye and one of his arms is gone too. The little girl’s grandma fixes Plaidypus up at the little girl’s request and when she gets done sewing, Plaidypus looks different, with new patches and buttons. The little girl calls Plaidypus her new, “Plaidy-polka-stripe-apus!” The little girl vows to never, ever, ever, ever lose him again.
Classroom Uses/Themes: I actually read this story in my Kindergarten classroom as a part of our reading unit. It comes in the big board book size so all students can read and see the pictures. It is an excellent book to teach sequence because it follows the same sequential pattern throughout the entire book. It also has many opposites listed in the story so there is an opportunity to teach what opposites are, as well.
Suppose you had an old plaid shirt and you snipped it and stitched it and stuffed it and sewed on button eyes. Surprise! You might now have a PLAIDYPUS!
In this story a little girl takes her plaidypus everywhere--the park, the store, the lake -- and somehow manages to lose him every time despite her promises otherwise. She is reduced to posting "lost" signs and after (count on your fingers) one, two, three, four days a knock (rap, rap, rap) is on the door. Open the door-- (look left, look right,) no one in sight. (Look down)--here's a sack. Could it be that plaidypus is back? (pantomime pulling it out of the sack, lifting it high in the air, and giving it a big hug).
Each adventure repeats the phrase "this story goes around and around". Draw a circle in the air with the children each time this happens.
This is a fun book about a girl and her new best friend. Her grandma makes her a platypus stuffed friend and she takes him everywhere. Occasionally she loses him, but she looks for him everywhere. It is a cute story about their friendship with bright colors and pictures to match.
The theme of this story is about treasuring special gifts and caring for them.
I would use this story to teach about prepositions or for younger classes, position words. It uses a lot of up, over, down, etc. I would have the student identify those words and pick out opposites. I might also use it for a lesson on repeats in writing, because the story circles around again and again.
We got this book on the Reading Rainbow app. My daughter loved the interaction on some of the pages(on one page you touch the scissors and they snip material). The text is very simple. I almost thought too simple for my 4 yr old. She seemed more enamored with the interaction then the story. Cute story, but maybe for a younger age. I know this isn't a review for Reading Rainbow, but what a great app. There are games after the story is read and my daughter loved playing the matching game with the pictures from the characters of the book.
Very cute story, with charming illustrations. My three year old brought it home from the library but my 22 month old is the one who is asking to read it five times a day. The refrain and rhythm throughout the book keep her attention even though it is longer than most books she will sit through these days.
plaidypus was made by Grama and he is much loved by his owner. However life is busy and plaidypus is lost at the park, at the supermarket, at the beach and he flies out of the car on a road trip. He is always missed and always found because this story goes"round and round"
I'd like my own platypus called Plaidypus. He seemed so adorable. I chronically lose things so I can identify with the whole misplaced stuffed animal concept pretty easily. This was a good story. You ought to read it.
Random book off the shelf from our local library. An old plaid shirt is transformed into a plush platypus and a little girl's best friend. The illustrations are great, the rhyming text is fun too. One of George's top requests for bedtime story right now.
A little girl gets a hand-made platypus made of out her grandfathers old plaid shirt. She then proceeds to lose said platypus where ever she goes, though each time it happens she promises up and down to not let it happen again.
Fantastic read-a-loud that just keeps getting better the more times it's read. My kids have both loved the repetition and rhythm of this fun story of what's lost can be found.
This book demands to be read out loud. Great for younger children with the repetition. I could see using this at story hour at the library with its big pictures and simple text.