I loved this book growing up and still do. The story centers around Arthur and his concerns about his new teacher after all of the rumors he has heard about them. The book is written in a way that young readers can have an easy time getting through but can still be challenging with new vocabulary. The print is written boldly to allow the reader to see the words easily and the passages do not take up too much space on the page, giving the illustrations most of the attention. The illustrations themselves are beautifully drawn, giving the reader the entire scene of what is currently going on in the story, rather than just a small framed picture. The coloring also adds a cartoonish feeling, making it appealing to young readers. The big picture of the story is to not judge a book by its cover and to not believe everything you hear. ( )

Have you ever had that one teacher who's known for being strict? Arthur has and he doesn't seem to like it one bit. On the very first day Mr. Ratburn, Arthur's new third grade teacher, gives him a pile of home work to do and later the same week he gives the whole class a spelling test with 100 words! Luckily, Arthur passed the test with flying colors but now he has to participate in the spelling bee. I loved the lesson that hard work pays off. ( )

Genre:fantasy
Age appropriateness: preschool and up
Review: Arthur gets Mr. Ratburn for a teacher, who is the toughest teacher in the whole school and also gives the most amount of homework. Arthur becomes overwhelmed by all the work and resentful that other classes can do fun things. He has to take a spelling test of 100 words, which prepares him for the spelling bee. Because of all his hard preparation,he goes on to be very successful in the spelling bee, ironically spelling "preparation."It teaches us an important lesson: working hard for something and doing one's best always yields the greatest reward. With no effort at all, you won't come out with your best.
It is an fantasy picture book because it use animal as the main character. However, the plot itself is realistic just as every student would encounter at school. ( )

I liked this book because it showed students that hard work pays off. In the story, Arthur is upset because he has a strict teacher and all of his friends have super fun teachers. Arthur gets frustrated when all of his friends are playing and going on field trips while he is spending all of his time studying for a huge spelling test his teacher is giving his class to determine who will compete in the 3rd grade spelling bee. In the end, Arthur winds up competing in and winning the spelling bee. I liked this book because the illustrations really did the text justice. When the text discussed how all of Arthur's family members helped him by quizzing him and telling his friends he couldn't play at the moment, there was a picture to correlate with each person. I also liked this book because it can teach students how to spell certain words. For example, his father says, "How about your C-H-O-R-E-S?" and his mother says, "Have you made your B-E-D?" When I was reading this to one of the boys I nanny, he said, "Emma! That spells bed!" so it does help children with spelling. The big idea behind this plot is that if you work hard, you will succeed. Arthur was placed in a classroom with a super strict and hard teacher, but he studied a lot and succeeded in the class and the spelling bee. ( )

arthur has Mr. Ratburn as his teacher. Mr. Ratburn makes the students work really hard to practice their spelling because the students with the highest scores go off to the spelling Bee. Arthur goes to the spelling bee and he wins because he practiced so hard for Mr. Ratburn
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