My kids and I absolutely love this book. The classroom illustrations are full of hidden jokes and items which presented an opportunity to play "do you see" with them. I also like that Mrs. McBloom isn't shamed for the state of her room - just asked to clean it. ( )

This is the story of Mrs. McBloom, a teacher of 50 years who's classroom is so messy the children could get lost. Mrs. McBloom was about to retire and Miss Bumblesprout was taking her place. Something had to be done about this disaster of a room! The school all helped clean out Mrs. McBlooms room and had a sale of all her things.

Summary:
Mrs. McBloom has been teaching since before the moon landing. That entire time, she hasn’t cleaned her classroom even once. She has chickens in her classroom, kittens, a mountain of unclaimed mittens, even a full grown apple tree. Every time someone tells Mrs. McBloom to clean up, she says that it’s on her to do list right under taking a cruise. Well, now Mrs. McBloom is about to retire so she must clean her room for the new teacher. One of her students organizes a town wide clean up. It turns out, Mrs. McBloom has taught everyone in town. They all rally together and help her clean up. In the end, the town sells some of the things they found in her room and use the money to send her on a cruise.

Personal Experience:
This book is adorable. The illustrations really add to it. Each picture of her messy room is full of fun things to look at. I read this to pre-school age children. They all giggled at the crazy things in Mrs. McBloom’s classroom. I asked them if they have ever let their room get messy. They all said yes. We also looked at the pictures of the messy room and pointed out funny things that weren’t in the story; like a hamster on a wheel, a bird’s nest, and a bee hive.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1.) I would tell the students how important it is to keep a clean classroom. Mrs. McBloom got herself in a real pickle by never cleaning. I would have them imagine some problems that Mrs. McBloom’s students may encounter because of her mess. Then draw me a picture to illustrate. Example: Chickens in the classroom could lay eggs in their back packs.
2.) This book has two morals; one is obviously about cleanliness and the other is teamwork. The town came together to help Mrs. McBloom. We could discuss the teamwork in this book then the students could all work together on a class project or a group project.
3.) In the book, Mrs. McBloom’s students all came up with an idea of how to clean up her classroom in a hurry. The ideas ranged from bringing in goats to eat the mess t making a black hole. I would have them imaging they were in Mrs. McBloom’s class and come up with their own plan to clean up her classroom. ( )

Great story for a read aloud, Teachers could use this story to help students understand the summary of a story.

Students like the story because the teachers room is so dirty and has all sorts of neat things in it. ( )

The whole concept of this story is sure to be a winner with kids familiar with messy rooms of their own that seem impossible to clean up, containing too many wonderful bits of string, rock, and odds bits and pieces that have no apparent value to an adult.

But it is the wonderful illustrations that make this book SO outstanding. I must have spend half an hour (or more!) pouring over each page, making sure I had seen it all.

I plan on buying a copy to save until my youngest granddaughter is old enough to "get it" (she's not two, yet).

It's the pictures that make a picture book, right? This one is a five star. ( )