Albie Newton

K-Gr 2—With a nod to the famous inventor, Albie's passion as a thinker and a tinker is clear from the start. He arrives at a new school intent on constructing a special gift to befriend his classmates. Unfortunately, he shirks his clean-up duties, making others pick up the slack, and monopolizes all the craft supplies. Finally, a surprisingly astute Shirley dissuades the frustrated student mob saying, "Maybe Albie didn't know. Let's look at what he made." His monumental spaceship time machine wins them over and the final spread shows a shot of the class, including the teacher, wearing historical costumes in space. Garay's illustrations are colorful and humorously incorporate tools and objects into the background of each page while Funk's satisfying rhyme propels the story like one of Albie's chugging inventions.