SCHOOL PICTURE DAY
written by Lynn Plourde, illustrated by Thor Wickstrom
Dutton Children's Books (Go to Young Readers Home)

Josephina lifted up a ceiling tile and
muttered, "Hmmm. I wonder how
this sprinkler system works."
PUSH SHOVE PWOOSH ABOVE
After some highfalutin fidgeting, fiddling,
fuddling and foopling, Josephina finally
figured out how the sprinkler system worked.

About the Book

Not only does Josephina Caroleena Wattasheena the First use her tool kit to figure out how the sprinkler system works, but she also fidgets, fiddles, fuddles, and fooples to figure out how the bus's gear shift, the pencil sharpener, the heating system, and the school photographer's wind-up bird all work. All this fidgeting might not be such a problem, except that it's school picture day in Mrs. Shepherd's class, and everyone is dressed in their best with their bows and bow ties, sashes and suspenders, jewels and jackets. They keep saying "Cheesy Wheezy" for the photographer with their toothless grins, but Josephina's antics leave them covered in grease, wood shavings, soot, and feathers. Just as the photographer finally gets everyone's attention and pushes the button on his camera—kl-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-c-r-o-o-o-o—the camera doesn't work. Who can fix it? Will Mrs. Shepherd's class ever get their school picture taken?

Reviews

Booklist . . . School picture day should be a snap (excuse the pun)--but not for Josephina Caroleena Wattasheena, whose penchant for figuring out how things work wreaks havoc. On the school bus she disassembles the gearshift; in the classroom she takes apart the pencil sharpener. Posing for the class picture, she sets off the sprinkler system. Her saving grace is that, in the end, it is she who figures out how to get the camera working when the photographer can't. All of this mayhem unfolds in a playful text that demands to be read aloud. Refrains like "fidgeting, fiddling, fuddling, and foopling," and the photographer's habit of goofy patronization ("Okey dokey. Don't be a slow pokey"), will get laughs, as will the cartoon drawings that feature round heads and skinny arms and legs and frenzied action. Lots of fun.

Publisher's Weekly . . . Plourde's zany portrait delivers a puckish message about nonconformity—along with a classroomful of giggles. Josephina Caroleena Wattasheena the First is the only kid in class who isn't dressed for picture day—she's too busy with her toolbox, "fidgeting, fiddling, fuddling, and foopling." Her research leaves her classmates' best clothes spattered with sawdust and oil. The photographer lines the class up and tries to take their picture ("Birdie wants a cheesy cheesy") only to be confronted with more "fidgeting, fiddling, fuddling, and foopling." But when his camera doesn't work, who should fix it but Josephina? In waggish cartoon spreads and vignettes, Wickstrom provides clouds of smoke, drifting feathers and 23 children with big smiles and a lot of missing teeth. A winning snapshot of an unconventional heroine whose curiosity saves the day.

Kirkus . . . A child's urge to tinker brings her entire class to the brink of disaster-and, happily, back. Everyone starts out to school dressed in their best, but they take on an increasingly spotty look after Josephina Caroleena Wattasheena the First sprays them with oil while disassembling the school bus's gear shift; with pencil shavings when she deconstructs the pencil sharpener; then water as she plumbs the sprinkler system's mysteries; and finally soot from the bowels of the boiler. The rather twee photographer-" 'Everyone, say cheesy wheezy, if you pleasy' "-has troubles too, as he struggles to get the children together, only to discover that his camera is kaflooie. Sounds like a job for you-know-who. Wickstrom fills his cartoon classroom scenes with gap-toothed, square-mouthed grins, and gives his dark-skinned engineer-in-training both a tool chest and an expression of fierce concentration. Young readers, with or without a mechanical vocation, will laugh at Josephina Caroleena Wattasheena the First's compulsive "fidgeting, fiddling, fuddling, and foopling," as well as the decidedly unusual class portrait that ultimately results.

School Library Journal . . . The zany, colorful, cartoon illustrations complement (Josephina's) eccentric nature, showcasing a multiethnic classroom fully engaged in her antics . . . children will enjoy Josephina's story. It may even relieve some pre-photo jitters.

Parent Magazine Online . . . Thor Wickstrom's bright, animated illustrations keep pace with the wacky wordplay and thoroughly engaging, tongue-twisting narration.

BookPage . . . Further hilarity is in store with Lynn Plourde's School Picture Day. Thor Wickstrom's cartoony illustrations are the perfect complement to Plourde's exaggerated situations. It seems that Josephina Caroleena Wattasheena the First does not know that it's picture day at school. Everyone else starts the morning dressed in their best outfits, but our heroine marches onto the school bus in overalls, with a jaunty hat over her multiple pigtails, carrying her trusty toolbox. She's not thinking about the photograph; she's just wondering how things work. When the bus' gearshift makes an odd sound, Josephina rushes to the rescue. After "some highfalutin fidgeting, fiddling, fuddling, and foopling," she solves the problem, but her oilcan sprays grease on all the well-dressed kids on the bus! Josephina's "help" with the pencil sharpener, school sprinkler system, heating vent and a wind-up chicken culminates in a rather odd class picture. The photographer is hilariously goofy, asking the children to show their "teethy weethies" and to say "cheesy weezy if you pleasy." And what about the fidgeting, curious Josephina Caroleena Wattasheena the First? She is off to bigger and better projects—even a rocket that looks ready for the moon.

Honors

Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award 2002
American Library Association's Amelia Bloomer List of Recommended Feminist Books for Youth, 2003
Beehive Award Nominee, Utah's State Children's Literature Award, 2003-2004
Volunteer State Book Award Nominee, Tennessee, 2004-2005
Colorado Children's Book Award Nominee, 2004
2004-05 KinderKlassic Nominee, Underwood Elementary School, Missouri

Learning Activities

· In School Picture Day, you'll notice that I gave the main character a fun, unusual name, Josephina Caroleena Wattasheena the First. When I was growing up, I always knew I was in trouble if my parents called me by all three of my names "Lynn Marie Plourde." And since Josephina gets into a bit of trouble, I thought it would be fun to give her three names. The "Josephina" idea came from my grandmother's sister who was Aunt Josephine—I just added the /a/ at the end. Her last name is supposed to sound like "What a she!" (after all, she is quite a girl). And so then, the middle name of Caroleena sounded good with Wattasheena. Then I couldn't resist adding "the First" after her name since family's often show pride in their heritage by naming family members "the Second" or "the Third." Josephina is one of a kind; so, of course, she should be "the First." Try making up your own list of fun, unusual names. Think of what job or characteristics you want the person to have and then create names based on that information. And so, a fussy chef might be called "Chu Z. Cooker" or an old plumber might be called "Rusty Pipeman." What quirky names can you think of for characters?

· In School Picture Day, as the author, it was my job to write the words; but Thor Wickstrom, the illustrator, added some words in a few places along with his funny images. And I'm so glad he did—they add to the playfulness of the book. For example, Thor made the photographer's special windup, flashing, squawking, talking bird say: "Squawk! Howdy! Wazzup? Yo! Me Friend!" Try adding some of your own words to School Picture Day. NO writing in the book though! Photocopy a picture from School Picture Day (such as, when the kids on the bus get covered with grease from the gearshift, or when the class gets all wet from the sprinkler, or when the photographer's camera breaks, or whatever), and then draw cartoon bubbles above each of the characters in that picture and write what you think each of them would be saying or thinking in that situation.

Lynn Plourde's second grade school picture with her teacher Mrs. Shepherd andclassmates at Academy School in Skowhegan, Maine, during the 1961-62 school year. Which one is Lynn? (Answer at end of page, click on the photo to enlarge it)

· School Picture Day was a different kind of story for me to write—it's not a "problem story" like Wild Child or Pigs in the Mud in the Middle of the Rud and it's not a "mood story" like Snow Day. I call School Picture Day a CHARACTER STORY. A character story is a story that has a main character with some kind of flaw or characteristic that causes problems in the story. Josephina's characteristic that creates chaos in the story is her "tinkering"—she wants to know how everything works. In order to write a CHARACTER STORY, you have to create a character with a flaw or special characteristic (e.g. being lazy, loving chocolate, being a know-it-all) and put that character in a special situation (e.g. being in a parade, going to a wedding, having a babysitter for the day). Then that character's flaw must: GET IN THE WAY, GET IN THE WAY, and finally SAVE THE DAY. Such was the case for Josephina—her tinkering kept getting in the way (and almost wrecked the class picture); but at the end, her tinkering saved the day because she knew how to fix the photographer's broken camera so that the class could finally have its school picture taken. Look for other picture books that are character stories (e.g. Big Al by Andrew Clements, Hooway for Wodney Wat by Helen Lester, Walter the Farting Dog by William Kotzwinkle & Glenn Murray), read them, and then try to identify the main characters' flaws and how they repeatedly got in the way and then finally saved the day. After reading some character stories, try writing your own character story.

Story Behind the Story

I save file folders with all the versions and revisions of my picture book stories. School Picture Day would win the prize for my thickest file folder—it is almost four inches thick! That's because I started writing the story in 1991 (over 11 years before it was published). During those years, I didn't work on the story constantly, but I kept returning to it many different times trying to improve it and to make it good enough to be publishable. The story first started as "Say Cheese, Please" and was about a family going for a family photo at a photographer's studio—a little boy in the family just wouldn't stay still for the picture. I tried many rewrites of that version; and I received some encouraging comments from editors, but no offers to publish it. Then I changed it to a school picture story with a mischievous little boy—it still didn't work. Finally, I tried changing the main character to a tinkering little girl (actually based on a character from a story I started even longer ago, back in 1989, called Questioning Quanda—ouch, bad name!—about a girl who learned how things worked by taking them apart). Finally, after all those versions and revisions, I had a story that worked—School Picture Day—phew! But it was worth all the writing and rewriting and waiting and more waiting. It's a story that I'm proud of, one that just took a little longer (years longer) to write than some of my other stories. School Picture Day has taught me a valuable lesson that I like to share with students: to hang on to all the stories that you write, even if they don't seem to be working or aren't as good as you want them to be—who knows, maybe someday, you'll find a way to make that story a good story (even after 11 years of trying!).

School Picture Day is based on memories of some of my own school picture days—with all the rows: stand-on-the-chairs, stand-on-the-floor, sit-on-the-chairs. I remember that it was always a challenge to get EVERYONE looking in the same direction, with smiles, without moving, and without making silly faces or gestures. In fact, I had a teacher named Mrs. Shepherd, like the teacher in School Picture Day. I used that name for a teacher because Mrs. Shepherd was my second grade teacher, which is the grade-level I envisioned in this story (since that seems to be the grade when kids lose the most teeth—and I LOVE all those toothless grins—Thor Wickstrom captured them beautifully). Plus the name Shepherd sounded like a great teacher name since she would be like a shepherd for a flock of students to follow. You'll see that I still have my own second grade school picture with my own Mrs. Shepherd and classmates. It was back in the olden days when school photos were in black-and-white. Can you figure out which one I am? (See the answer at the end of this section.)

Lynn's stepson, Seth, fidgeting, fiddling, fuddling, and foopling with bubbles.

I dedicated School Picture Day to my youngest stepson Seth. Seth was three-years-old when I married his dad; and he has always been a fidgeter, fiddler, fuddler, and foopler. He would play in the gullies by our house for hours damming up the water and figuring out how to control it and make it flow where he wanted it to go. He used to "borrow" our keys off the shelf to use with his pretend machines and vehicles. I remember one day when he was about four-years-old and he poured a whole bottle of dish detergent down the bathroom sink to see how it made bubbles. When we scolded him and told him that it was not okay to pour a whole bottle of dish detergent down the sink, he promised not to do it again—and so the very next day, he dumped a whole bottle of shampoo down the sink! Now that Seth is in his 20's, he still is the handy one we turn to when we need something put together or fixed. He can do it—once a fidgeter-fiddler-fuddler-foopler, always a fidgeter-fiddler-fuddler-foopler!

(ANSWER to Lynn's 2nd grade school picture day photo mystery: Lynn's the one in the middle of the front row with the white dress, saddle shoes, and toothless grin.)

"Cheesy Wheezy!" says Seth.