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Double Trouble in Walla Walla
It was an ordinary Monday morning in Walla Walla—until Lulu walked up to her English teacher's desk. "Mrs. Bell, I feel like a nit-wit. My homework is all higgledy-piggledy. Last night it was in tip-top shape, but not it's a big mish-mash." With those few words, things become not so ordinary after all, for it seems that Lulu has opened up a super-duper, helter-skelter WORD WARP. Luckily for Lulu and the rest of the English-speaking world, the school nurse has an idea about how to handle this hodge-podge of topsy-turvy chit-chat. Will it work? Zig-zag through the jibber-jabber and the yakety-yak to find out!
32 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1997
6 people are currently reading
420 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Clements
193 books2,153 followersI was born in Camden, New Jersey in 1949 and lived in Oaklyn and Cherry Hill until the middle of sixth grade. Then we moved to Springfield, Illinois. My parents were avid readers and they gave that love of books and reading to me and to all my brothers and sisters. I didn’t think about being a writer at all back then, but I did love to read. I'm certain there's a link between reading good books and becoming a writer. I don't know a single writer who wasn’t a reader first.
Before moving to Illinois, and even afterwards, our family spent summers at a cabin on a lake in Maine. There was no TV there, no phone, no doorbell—and email wasn’t even invented. All day there was time to swim and fish and mess around outside, and every night, there was time to read. I know those quiet summers helped me begin to think like a writer.
During my senior year at Springfield High School my English teacher handed back a poem I’d written. Two things were amazing about that paper. First, I’d gotten an A—a rare event in this teacher’s class. And she’d also written in large, scrawly red writing, “Andrew—this poem is so funny. This should be published!”
That praise sent me off to Northwestern University feeling like I was a pretty good writer, and occasionally professors there also encouraged me and complimented the essays I was required to write as a literature major. But I didn’t write much on my own—just some poetry now and then. I learned to play guitar and began writing songs, but again, only when I felt like it. Writing felt like hard work—something that’s still true today.
After the songwriting came my first job in publishing. I worked for a small publisher who specialized in how-to books, the kind of books that have photos with informative captions below each one. The book in which my name first appeared in print is called A Country Christmas Treasury. I’d built a number of the projects featured in the book, and I was listed as one of the “craftspeople”on the acknowlegements page, in tiny, tiny type.
In 1990 I began trying to write a story about a boy who makes up a new word. That book eventually became my first novel, Frindle, published in 1996, and you can read the whole story of how it developed on another web site, frindle.com. Frindle became popular, more popular than any of my books before or since—at least so far. And it had the eventual effect of turning me into a full-time writer.
I’ve learned that I need time and a quiet place to think and write. These days, I spend a lot of my time sitting in a small shed about seventy feet from my back door at our home in Massachusetts. There’s a woodstove in there for the cold winters, and an air conditioner for the hot summers. There’s a desk and chair, and I carry a laptop computer back and forth. But there’s no TV, no phone, no doorbell, no email. And the woodstove and the pine board walls make the place smell just like that cabin in Maine where I spent my earliest summers.
Sometimes kids ask how I've been able to write so many books. The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is a good lesson, I think. You don't have to do everything at once. You don't have to know how every story is going to end. You just have to take that next step, look for that next idea, write that next word. And growing up, it's the same way. We just have to go to that next class, read that next chapter, help that next person. You simply have to do that next good thing, and before you know it, you're living a good life.
Before moving to Illinois, and even afterwards, our family spent summers at a cabin on a lake in Maine. There was no TV there, no phone, no doorbell—and email wasn’t even invented. All day there was time to swim and fish and mess around outside, and every night, there was time to read. I know those quiet summers helped me begin to think like a writer.
During my senior year at Springfield High School my English teacher handed back a poem I’d written. Two things were amazing about that paper. First, I’d gotten an A—a rare event in this teacher’s class. And she’d also written in large, scrawly red writing, “Andrew—this poem is so funny. This should be published!”
That praise sent me off to Northwestern University feeling like I was a pretty good writer, and occasionally professors there also encouraged me and complimented the essays I was required to write as a literature major. But I didn’t write much on my own—just some poetry now and then. I learned to play guitar and began writing songs, but again, only when I felt like it. Writing felt like hard work—something that’s still true today.
After the songwriting came my first job in publishing. I worked for a small publisher who specialized in how-to books, the kind of books that have photos with informative captions below each one. The book in which my name first appeared in print is called A Country Christmas Treasury. I’d built a number of the projects featured in the book, and I was listed as one of the “craftspeople”on the acknowlegements page, in tiny, tiny type.
In 1990 I began trying to write a story about a boy who makes up a new word. That book eventually became my first novel, Frindle, published in 1996, and you can read the whole story of how it developed on another web site, frindle.com. Frindle became popular, more popular than any of my books before or since—at least so far. And it had the eventual effect of turning me into a full-time writer.
I’ve learned that I need time and a quiet place to think and write. These days, I spend a lot of my time sitting in a small shed about seventy feet from my back door at our home in Massachusetts. There’s a woodstove in there for the cold winters, and an air conditioner for the hot summers. There’s a desk and chair, and I carry a laptop computer back and forth. But there’s no TV, no phone, no doorbell, no email. And the woodstove and the pine board walls make the place smell just like that cabin in Maine where I spent my earliest summers.
Sometimes kids ask how I've been able to write so many books. The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is a good lesson, I think. You don't have to do everything at once. You don't have to know how every story is going to end. You just have to take that next step, look for that next idea, write that next word. And growing up, it's the same way. We just have to go to that next class, read that next chapter, help that next person. You simply have to do that next good thing, and before you know it, you're living a good life.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews
March 1, 2013
Well, I actually used this for a Storytelling piece (and an HI). But it's sooooooooooooooooo much fun to say! :D
May 26, 2011
This story is fantastic! I couldn't stop laughing as I read it and even after I finished. It is guaranteed to make kids laugh and is quite a tongue-twister. This book could fit with the theme of rhyming, geography, medicine, or school. It is a little bit long, but totally worth it. There are six pages of complete non-sense which are great for getting kids excited and goofy. This probably ranks as one of my all-time favorite kids' books.
November 1, 2010
This super silly book would be great for a silly read aloud. In this story a girl gets her words all tangled up and causes everyone in the school to start talking funny.
May 20, 2015
I had no idea there were so many hyphenated word sets! A fun read that would be perfect as part of a vocab or writing unit in the primary grades.
February 10, 2018
This is a fun read aloud and could be a really fun reader's theatre
February 4, 2018
Can rhyming be contagious; we all know that laughter can be at times? Reading Andrew Clements’ Double Trouble in Walla Walla will have you doing both. It is a hilarious tale of a young girl named Lulu and how her rhyming causes a predicament to the people around her. Everyone near Lulu begins to spout out rhyming phrases.
This book is perfect to read-aloud, enabling the children to hear the rhyming phrases and repeated words. Its use of recognizable phrases such as okeydokey, jeepers creepers and tutti-frutti makes it excellent for teaching phonemic awareness. This is a must read-aloud book if you can control your own laughter!
This book is perfect to read-aloud, enabling the children to hear the rhyming phrases and repeated words. Its use of recognizable phrases such as okeydokey, jeepers creepers and tutti-frutti makes it excellent for teaching phonemic awareness. This is a must read-aloud book if you can control your own laughter!
September 13, 2014
Double Trouble in Walla Walla, written by Andrew Clements and illustrated by Salvatore Murdocca, is a extremely silly, word twisting story that can be enjoyed by any age. The main character Lulu is in Ms. Bell's class when she raised her hand for help on her homework. The moment she opens her mouth, a jumble of twisting words and phrases that dazzle her speech. At first her teacher is irritated and asks her to knock it off, but soon realizes that the rhyming is not done on purpose. This fancy chatter is contagious and soon infect the teacher, principle, and nurse. Contemplating on calling the superintendent, the nurse asks what Lulu had done the day prior that might have turned this crazy speech on. Nothing she could recall had started it. So as a last resort option, the four of them begin blurting out any combinations of words they could think of in hopes they would eventually run out. The results are shocking.
This tongue twisting story brought a smile to my face and actually made me laugh out loud. Between the words and silly pictures, the audience will most definitely be absorbed through the book. For the three pages full of chaos and twisting combinations, I was feeling anxiety and suspense. Was this illness ever going to end? I truly felt what the characters were experiencing and wanted them to quit the jumbling talk. I think the illustrations added the right amount of visual elements in order to create the tone the author wanted to portray. I enjoyed how the text bubbles on the majority of the pages added to the emphasis of silly words. I can see this book being a great de-stressor for a class.
This tongue twisting story brought a smile to my face and actually made me laugh out loud. Between the words and silly pictures, the audience will most definitely be absorbed through the book. For the three pages full of chaos and twisting combinations, I was feeling anxiety and suspense. Was this illness ever going to end? I truly felt what the characters were experiencing and wanted them to quit the jumbling talk. I think the illustrations added the right amount of visual elements in order to create the tone the author wanted to portray. I enjoyed how the text bubbles on the majority of the pages added to the emphasis of silly words. I can see this book being a great de-stressor for a class.
May 25, 2015
Double Trouble in Walla Walla is an absolute delight to read and a challenge to read aloud. It abounds with goofy tongue twisters, some of which are classics for older readers, and others of which might be brand new altogether. The main character, Lulu, comes into class one day with reported homework troubles, and says to her teacher, "Mrs. Bell, I feel like a nit-wit. My homework is all higgledy-piggledy. Last night
it was in tip-top shape, but now it's a big mish-mash." Her teacher, not amused, responds not to Lulu's homework troubles, but instead to her preposterous, "doubled" speech: "All right for you, Lulu. If you're going to shilly-shally and dilly-dally with all this fancy-schmancy yak-yak, then we'll just have to trit-trot down to the
principal's office." The book proceeds in this fashion, but at one point escalates to the point where entire pages are consumed by head-spinning doubled words. Illustrations by Salvatore Murdocca, including brightly-colored speech bubbles that pop off the page, only add to the fun! This book is a delight for children and adults, and is a great read-aloud for the elementary classroom.
it was in tip-top shape, but now it's a big mish-mash." Her teacher, not amused, responds not to Lulu's homework troubles, but instead to her preposterous, "doubled" speech: "All right for you, Lulu. If you're going to shilly-shally and dilly-dally with all this fancy-schmancy yak-yak, then we'll just have to trit-trot down to the
principal's office." The book proceeds in this fashion, but at one point escalates to the point where entire pages are consumed by head-spinning doubled words. Illustrations by Salvatore Murdocca, including brightly-colored speech bubbles that pop off the page, only add to the fun! This book is a delight for children and adults, and is a great read-aloud for the elementary classroom.
November 14, 2010
Of course, it had to happen in Walla Walla. Our main character comes to school with a bit of a wordplay affliction - everything she says comes out doubled! Either strict reduplication ("yak-yak"), rhyming ("nit-wit") or, often, what is called PARARHYME ("tip-top", "jibber-jabber"). (And believe me, it was a job and a half to find out the name for the last one!)
It's just an itsy-bitsy bit... contagious. So we just have the standard plot where everybody gets dragged to the principal's office to try to find the root of the problem. The story itself isn't all that interesting, but it makes up for it in the hilarity of the dialog. Yes, it will twist your tongue in knots - but that's why you make the kid read it to you when they get bigger!
It's just an itsy-bitsy bit... contagious. So we just have the standard plot where everybody gets dragged to the principal's office to try to find the root of the problem. The story itself isn't all that interesting, but it makes up for it in the hilarity of the dialog. Yes, it will twist your tongue in knots - but that's why you make the kid read it to you when they get bigger!
February 11, 2012
This book is flippin hilarious!! One day in class, Lulu starts a "word warp" when she says her homeowrk is all higgledy-piggledy mish-mash. Now her teacher, principal, and school nurse are all talking in the same flip-flop chitter chatter. They say as many flip-floped crink'em-crank'em words as possible to try and get them out of their system. With three straight pages of just nonsense words, your bound to get everyone laughing and even get your tongue tied up! This book is a hoot! These words are absolutely absurd! It is definitely a book you would have to practice ahead of time to read it just right; it is such a tongue twister. But it is such a fun book, and the illustrations help make it that much more fun and magical.
November 25, 2015
Andrew Clements has created a humorous book that is elevated by Salvatore Murdocca's detailed illustrations of the school setting. The book is a great source for conversation on the many curious words/terms known as reduplication in the English language. Chock-a-block full of interesting words, this book could become the source of chitter-chatter and hub-bub within your classroom, even if you're not located in Walla Walla, Bora Bora or New York, New York. Is the teacher, Mrs. Bell, a ding-dong? Can Lulu stop speaking in a rhyming mish-mash? Will the principal have a tip-top solution? While this is not Pulitzer prize worthy, its worth a giggle,and will entertain words lovers, perhaps even awakening the word lover hidden in a child you love.
April 30, 2014
Double trouble in Walla Walla is a book about this girl named lulu who gets in trouble for saying a really confusing word. The whole book premises around lulu saying a word at the beginning in her English paper. A then the teacher, nurse, principle, classmates, and dog, made the word longer. By the end of the book the teacher comes to understand what Lulu meant by the help of everyone who contributed. This picture book was very well done, with fun illustrations to match the text. This book is definitely meant for more advanced children, with some pages having a couple of paragraphs on it, while some pages had only a few. This variation kept the reader engaged and excited to know what came next. All all all, this was a very well done, brilliant book.
April 22, 2016
This is most definitely one of my favorite books to read of all time. It plays the story of Lulu, her principle, a teacher, and the school nurse. They talk in double with everything that they say. I loved reading this book when I was little because the words were so silly to say but that is what made the book so fun to read. I would read this book over and over again and laugh because the words and their conversations were so fun to read and listen too. I love how it was named after the town Walla Walla which is in Washington. It has a double name which made it a perfect title for the book. The illustration were just as great at the words were. Lulu had the biggest hair I had ever seen and I thought it was so funny and entertaining to read the entire way through.
February 16, 2009
Well, I bought this book in Walla Walla, WA, where I now reside, on the recommendation of my friend Susanne Reed, who reads it every year to her students in California. I didn't initially buy it because I thought maybe it was just tourist schlock, but it's actually really swell. I bought it for my favorite 2 year old Willa Miranda Maurette and her new brother Griffin Thomas Maurette...it's a mouthful, and I hope to someday hear them read it to me...so that I can enjoy the tongue-twisters coming out of youthful mouths. Anyway, it's fabulous and worth a try for your 6 and ups...little much for the younger lot, but Willa's a genius, so...she did just fine, so who am I to say...
April 8, 2014
Double Trouble In Walla Walla is written by Andrew Clements. This book is hilarious. Every page involves a new tongue twister of word pairs. Double-Trouble, click-clack, zig-zag, piggly-wiggly and many, many more. The plot of the story is about a student who decides to talk all “fancy” in class using word-pairs. The teacher takes the girl to the principal’s office where they all break out into word-pair conversations. The different fonts and colors used in the text reiterate the word-pair’s personality. The illustrations go perfectly with the craziness of the text and word-pairs literally flying around the page. This is a great book!
October 31, 2014
My mouth feels about like it does after reading "Fox in Sox" after I read this one. While not a rhyming book, it does give your mouth -- and voice -- quite the workout! Especially because you WILL be asked to read it again. Very popular with the preschool to second grade crowd.
This is a wacky and creative story about a little girl and the faculty/administrators at her school getting trapped in a word warp that causes their speech to be reduced to mostly reduplicative words. This makes for super fun reading material and lots of new words for kids to pick up during the course of the book.
This is on my 7-year-old son's favorite books list.
This is a wacky and creative story about a little girl and the faculty/administrators at her school getting trapped in a word warp that causes their speech to be reduced to mostly reduplicative words. This makes for super fun reading material and lots of new words for kids to pick up during the course of the book.
This is on my 7-year-old son's favorite books list.
February 24, 2015
This is a book about young Lulu and her sudden problem with repeating words and phrases. It seems to be "catching", when her teacher, the school principal and the school nurse all begin to do the same thing. The nurse comes up with an interesting solution which is funny to read aloud.
Some of the words are very unusual, there is a lot of rhyming and a sometimes sing-song quality to the text, but that makes it an entertaining read. I enjoyed reading this aloud to my kids and they laughed a number of times at the funny words and phrases that went by.
Some of the words are very unusual, there is a lot of rhyming and a sometimes sing-song quality to the text, but that makes it an entertaining read. I enjoyed reading this aloud to my kids and they laughed a number of times at the funny words and phrases that went by.
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October 3, 2012This book was so weird, but very funny! Most of the time I was very confused about what the characters were even talking about, sense they all got caught in some kind of word warp. The pictures and illustrations were superb, very detailed and colorful, which is what attracted me to the book in the first place. The story was cute though and I think kids would love this book because of all the silly words that are in it.
July 12, 2014
Double Trouble in Walla Walla it one of the silliest, yet word savvy book I have ever read! Truly the best way to introduce children to a lot of different, yet funny sounding words. I smiled almost the entire time while reading this book, because it was just that great. I love the illustrations and the fact that the author, Andrew Clements chose to write in a such manner. Simply genius and creative. I love it. Please read it if you haven't its a great tool for the discovery of language.
March 25, 2015
I find this book to be a very fun read, and can only imagine the fun that children would have reading/hearing this book. I would use this book as a read aloud, and I would try to get the children engaged in the book by having them say the phrases with me. The only gripe I would have is that some of the pages can be difficult to read, and may have too much going on for kids to follow. Overall, this book is fun, and kids will get a kick out of trying to say these tongue twisters.
May 1, 2015
I have no idea what these words are called, but this book does a masterful job of writing them into a story. Clements writes a story of a contagious case of speaking using these strange often hyphenated words and phrases that are all a part of the American English vernacular in some way. It boggled my mind. I use many of these words every day, and no that I see them on paper, I wonder how confusing my own speach might be. Really an exceptional book. Give it a read.
March 16, 2013
Oldie-goodie bookie wookie.Not only is the storyline interesting and fun to children, this book is a great way to showcase vivid vocabulary and onomatopoeia. I have read this to fifth graders and first graders and they ALL loved it. However, I did edit the language a bit when reading "super poopy" and ding-a ling.
April 18, 2013
Double Trouble in Walla Walla is a great book. Throughout this book I couldn't help but laugh. This book can help students who are struggling with knowing words. If they can start the first time the word is usually repeated over and over again. Clements is a great artist and has done a wonderful job of reaching multiple types of readers with this book.
August 6, 2016
I've now read this book to a dozen classes of kids in 2nd to 5th grades, and it never fails to amuse them. It helps to have some practice ahead of time, as the kids are more impressed if you can read the sing-song words quickly & smoothly. Several classes gave a round of applause after the last page.
July 16, 2014
This is a great book for young learners because they can learn about rhyming words and enjoy a funny book. I think Dual Language Learners could also relate to this book because they may feel like they speak differently then the other students like Lulu. They may learn to embrace the different way they speak.
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April 29, 2016This book would crack kids up. It is full of jibber jabber...;) I loved this book as a student because it is a really dumb story of a girl, her teacher, the principal and the nurse all having a bad case of word warps! It is extremely hard to read and get through without getting your tongue twisted several times, but I guess that's the fun of it!
May 24, 2009
I saw this reviewed on Goodreads and quickly checked it out of the library. It's become my 2-year-old's favorite readaloud before bedtime. Perfect for the son of two former English majors! It's great!
August 10, 2011
This book is so much fun! I talk way too fast on a good day and my kids loved it whe I read this out loud as fast as I can. I must admit I can't get through it because I giggle right along! Thank you, Andrew Clements!
April 18, 2012
Funny read-aloud book that includes lots of nonsense rhyming words. A girl is sent to the principal's office when she can't stop speaking in hyphenated slang words. Students will find it very funny! Great to teach students about the concept of onomatopoeia.
September 18, 2012
This book is laugh-out-loud funny! The word combinations are fun for kids to say out loud, and the illustrations are great! Clements certainly wrote a tip-top book that will keep kids of all ages entertained! Great read aloud!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews