(Violet and Victor Write the Best-Ever Bookworm Book) [By: Kuipers, Alice] [Dec, 2014]

Violet and Victor

by Alice Kuipers

Violet and Victor Small are twins on a to write the best book in the whole, entire world--together! Victor is reluctant, but Violet is determined, and soon the ideas can't come quickly enough.They begin to write a story about a hungry Bookworm who is eating all the books in the library. Thanks to Victor's brilliant ideas, Violet is able to save the day (and the library).This delightful story-within-a-story is filled with good-natured sibling rivalry, and focuses on the spirit of cooperation, the satisfaction of a job well-done, and the magic of storytelling.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Writing, Books About Books, Fiction, Family, Juvenile

Hardcover

First published December 1, 2014

About the author

Free Online Writing Course? Sign up here: eepurl.com/bA03lH

I was born in London, England, and I moved to Canada in 2003 when I fell in love with a Canadian. We live in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which took a while for me to learn how to spell. I have four children, a girl and three boys.

My first novel, Life on the Refrigerator Door, was published in 29 countries, won several awards and was named as a New York Times book for the Teen Age. My second is called Lost For Words in the US, and The Worst Thing She Ever Did everywhere else. It won the Arthur Ellis Award, was shortlisted for the White Pine and Willow Awards, and was published in eight territories. 40 Things I Want To Tell You is my YA book published in 2012. The Death of Us, a CLA honour book, in 2014. My newest YA novel is Me (and) Me.

Violet and Victor Write the Best-Ever Bookworm Book is my first picture book. It was published with Little, Brown Books For Young Readers in December 2014, and the sequel Violet and Victor Write The Most Fabulous Fairy Tale is available now.

Find me at www.alicekuipers.com

Reviews

[Liza Nahas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute story for us bookworms who are hungry for words. Cool illustrations, also.

[Erin]

As Violet and Victor walk their way through different book created settings they create a book together while sparring along the way. Each twin has their own distinct font so you know who is speaking or writing as they both try to make the story better and try to best the other. The book does a nice job of illustrating reader's different tastes and how a book is created.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twins Violet and Victor create a book together about a bookworm. They don't agree on how he should look or what he is doing, but in the end, the book is really good. Good for teachers in discussing the writing process and collaboration.

[pati · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked how this brother and sister work together (and apart) to create a bookworm story worth reading!

[Ms. B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story about a sister and brother who can't completely agree about what their (her) story should be about. The illustrations were the best part of the story for me.

[Gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book to discuss the ideas for writing and how to put a story together. It's also a great example of a different style of writing where an author is working to get two different voices in the story and talk directly to the reader. This can be compared to Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude. Both have very clear "girl" and "boy" voices as they work to make a story, but in the end it is the story that is important and enjoyed. I really like that this one deals with a bookworm as well. This could lead to a very quick, very fun, bookworm/bookmark activity to remind the students about this book and how to use multiple voices. Another great aspect of the writing is that the author clearly lets you know when a character is writing, and when they are talking, which adds to the style. This could offer some additional writing opportunities to those students who love working on graphic novels as well.

[James Costello]

Kuipers, A. (2015). Violet and Victor Write the Best-Ever Bookworm Book. New York: Little, Brown & Company.

A story about twins, brother and sister, writing a book together. They have their differences in how they want the story to play out. In the end, they both agree that the story they worked on together is a fun one in the end.

Activity: With your group, see if you can come up with a silly short story, just like Violet and Victor. (try to see if you can work in disagreements into the story)

[Stefanie Burns · Rating 2 out of 5]

Violet and Victor, twins, write a book together. As they write they each alter the text to their own liking. There is a little sibling rivalry along the way. The story is a little thin, but the pages are very pretty. Even the text adds to the colorful story with each narrator written in a different color and the story text varies from the spoken text. The illustrations use drawings, collage, and even origami.

[Enrique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the way the illustrations are put into the book and made as a type of collage where you can see various colors to make up a page and almost seem as ripped out from other books and put all together. The attention to detail is so great that you can even see words or pictures from wherever that piece came from which makes this book an amazing one for the middle area of Elementary, 2nd grade to 4th grade.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twins Violet and Victor collaborate to write a story, with a bit of bickering along the way. This is a nice group read aloud to discuss the writing process and collaboration, and the illustrations are superb. However, so much of it is in word bubble format and the concept is a little more intangible, so I wouldn't use it in preschool story time. I might use it in my afterschool program with kids 6+.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, although a little unconvincing. The brother says he doesn't want to write a story with the sister & agrees to give just one line, but then continues to contribute much more without much prodding. He calls the sister bossy, but I didn't see much evidence of that. Self-centered or self-aggrandizing seem like more accurate descriptions of her.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Violet want to write a story and asks her twin Victor for help. After a couple of rough starts, they create a story about a hungry book worm who learns to listen and fill up on stories rather than eat books.
Some sibling rivalry and story within a story.

[Carson Belle · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a book about two kids working together to write their own book. I love the vocabulary, illustrations and the information in this book. I would use this one as an intro to writing books in my future classroom.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought Violet was bossy to the point of unpleasantness.

[Sue Mosher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story about a pair of twins. I love that they argue but are able to see past their differences to write a great story together.

[Sue Mosher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story about a pair of twins. I love that they argue but are able to see past their differences to write a great story together.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Violet wants to write a story, but when she asks Victor for ideas he wants it to be about a bookworm. Their story turns out to be better than Violet expected.

[Ramli Leuwayan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Amazing

[Susan Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book story, but I did find it a little confusing to keep text straight between Violet and Victor. (Library)

[Aj Fried · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book with fabulous pictures and a cute story about twins, writing books, and a cute bookworm!

[SamSamSam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can we not with the whole bossy thing?

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read-aloud for all ages. Can also be a fun introduction to a writing activity.

A must-have for all libraries!

[Jessica Zapata · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute sibling interplay with a decent storyline. The artwork is a lovely use of mixed media with elements from actual books.

[Skyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this to my class today. Really got them motivated to write!

[Melanie Hetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Violet and Victor are twins. Violet wants to write a story and would like her brother's help. Her brother would rather play with his worms. Violet is rather persistent so Victor offers a line or two which Violet rejects (she is NOT bossy!).

The result is a sweet tale of the combining of two very different imaginations.

Beautiful illustrations. The illustrator used many forms of printed text to make a collage-like appearance.

A note about the dialogue: the dialogue between the siblings is in alternating colors. Violet is purple and Victor is red. This could help struggling readers with POV issues.

[Haley Hardwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personal Reaction: I highly recommend this book for children learning to write. I thought it was very clever, cute, and imaginative as well. I love writing, so for me was super interesting to see it from a child's point of view in the story.

Purpose: Read aloud grades 1-3
-enjoyment: students will be able to learn about writing in a creative way as told by children, which is more engaging and interesting for them and can relate the ideas, worries,
-relationship between the twins, there is some sibling rivalry present in the story, which children can relate to and it can entertain them as well
-the collaboration between the twins is a big theme of the book, showing how they can work together and create something using their imaginations
-the illustrations catch the attention of the students, with clues on each page, the different style of text, use of color, etc.

Curriculum: Read aloud grades 1-3
-great for introducing writing
-introducing literary elements through examples of perspective, characterization, alliteration that are present in the story
-potential discussion the idea of collaboration and teamwork
-discussing the writing process, how to write a story

[Anne Soderlund]

Opening: Show the book and share the title, the author's and illustrator's names. Ask "Have you ever written a book or story with a partner?" Ask how it felt. Discuss the pros and cons of working with others. Open the book and show them the different text. Help them discover that the purple text is Violet talking, the orange is Victor, and the text that looks like handwriting on lined paper is the story they write.

The opening moves for this book include pointing out unusual features of the text, and prompting a sharing of personal experiences related to the theme.

In this story Violet and Victor are twins. She wants to write a book. Victor just wants to hang out with his worms, but she keeps badgering him to come up with ideas for the story. She also dismisses or changes a lot of his ideas. They end up with a story they can both enjoy. This could be used to kick off a cooperative project as a reminder of a few dos and don'ts in addition to adding to the examples of ways siblings interact.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kuipers provides a cute look at the process of writing a story, from a child's point of view. Not only is the relationship between the siblings funny and realistic, but it maps out beautifully the elements needed to create a story. The imagination expended here is to be applauded and the book is not only entertaining but is a natural lead in to young readers writing their own stories. In fact, I plan to use this with some of my own students. The multicolored ink helps distinguish between Violet and Victor which helps the reader know who is speaking. The delightful collage illustrations are bound to inspire children to use their own imaginations to create their own "best-ever" stories. I also like the fact that the two children come at the story with very different ideas, but somehow manage to create a single story which they then enjoy reading together. A great book for young readers who aren't sure they can create a story of their own. The book is also plain good reading.

[Venus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally posted on Children's Atheneum

Writing is not easy, or so Violet and Victor Small discover. Carefully crafted, this is the story about how to write stories from a child's perspective. There are all the necessary elements from narration, to pacing, to plot. Both children have very different views on how this story should be done, but somehow managed to create a story together.

This reminded me of how we used to pretend when I was little. Being a writer and reader even at a young age, it wasn't unusual for us to create stories, character sheets, and maps before we began to play. Sometimes we spent so much time building our world that we ran out of time to play and had to return to it later. Anything that encourages children to not only read, but also to create stories themselves get's an A+ in my book.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

The bookworm in me loved this book! The brother-sister dynamic cute and realistic- I could picture having a similar conversation with my brothers when we were kids. The illustrations are a great mix or drawings and photographs of actual book covers, pages, origami etc. There is so much to look at on each page- this would be a great book to curl up with and read one-on-one with a child to find all the different, cool things hiding on each page. The color of the text changes to help the reader keep track of who is talking, and which parts of the text are part of the story are in the book they are writing (these text chunks appear on colored notebook paper in the same color as whichever character is writing), vs. the dialogue between brother and sister.