The Great Paper Caper

THERE IS AN AIRPLANE CONTEST IN TOWN! Well, in the book at least. It seems that an undercover bear has a plan to win. Meanwhile groups of forest animals are suspicious, branches on trees are disappearing. This leads them to an investigation. No matter how hard they try, no clues can be found in the whole forest. In a little house, the bear is making blue prints of paper airplanes. I would like to tell you the rest but that would very much give it away. I don't think anyone would like to read this book anymore. Oliver Jeffers, he is very creative. The Incredible book eating boy. Who would think of that? Oliver Jeffers, of course. His imagination grows right before our eyes! My opinion, why on earth would you pass up any of his books? It is a gift to have an imagination like his. His books seem to have that fun sort if theme to them. These Drawings, they're AMAZING. What I like about them the most is the humor. Most people like to laugh, so why not read this book? I mean, a group of animals are trying to figure out a crime scene. They even set up a whole inspection! I suggest you read this book. Like I said, who wouldn't?--Sara D. (5th Grader)

Everyone was nestled beneath the ground in their forest homes keeping busy and minding their own business, but when they all got together they noticed that there were some odd things going on. Beaver noticed that some of the branches had been hacked from the trees and that didn't set right with him, nor the rest of the crowd. Soon they started to blame each other. The beaver, the goose, the pig, the little girl and the owl were soon at odds with one another. Something would have to be done to solve this mystery or there would be big trouble! Someone was stealing the branches, but it wasn't anyone they knew. Poor owl went to land on a branch during the night and PLOP . . . he landed right on his head. They all branched out to work on this crime. "An investigation was launched to get to the bottom of things." Meanwhile, the branches kept disappearing, but something else was showing up. Paper airplanes. "Then an eyewitness report led them to some evidence that had blown in not far away." A moose had seen a paper airplane flying in the forest. What could this mean? Would the forest crowd be able to solve this perplexing mystery? This is a fun, quirky little mystery that the budding detective between the ages of four and seven will certainly enjoy. This beginning whodunit would be a perfect circle time or homeschool read-aloud book and will generate a bit of excitement as the children try to guess who the culprit is and the mystery behind the vanishing branches. In the endpages there is a guide to making a paper airplane, but younger children will need some help with this activity. This is a perfect book for your budding amateur sleuth!

Oliver Jeffers is an odd duck. This is a statement that should surprise no one. The man simply has a very distinctive way of looking at the world. Labeling his style doesn't seem to work either. For a while there he was sort of the average-boy-meets-small-friendly-creature author/illustrator thanks to Lost and Found and The Way Back Home. But then you have his other titles to contend with. His How to Catch a Stars. His The Incredible Book-Eating Boys. I often find that I can fill up these reviews simply by comparing a certain author/illustrator to similar artists working in similar fields. Unfortunately for me, if Jeffers has been unduly influenced by one artist or another, I'm sorry but I can't figure out who that might be. Oliver Jeffers is, as I have said before, an odd duck. And we wouldn't have him any other way. The Great Paper Caper is proof enough of that. There is a mystery lurking in these woods. It started small enough. Local forest denizens hardly even noticed when the first branches of their trees started to disappear. When the trees themselves started to go, however, it was time to do some serious detective work. At long last something was found near a crime scene; a paper airplane. A paper airplane with the paw prints of the local bear all over it. And sure as shooting when the animals check it out they see that the bear has been turning a plethora of wood into paper airplanes in a vain attempt to live up to the paper airplane stardom of his ancestors. After a full confession and an outpouring of sincere regret the bear is sentenced to a replanting of the trees and his fellow animals find a way to help him come to terms with his paper airplane legacy. Stories of industrious lumberjack bears do not initially sound particularly British. Close inspection of Jeffers's illustrations (and they all deserve close inspection, you know) show that the man is prone to particularly British moments. Note the judge's wig. Or the red telephone booth into which the other animals climb. These all are merely indicative of Jeffers's love of tiny details. Since he's not an intricate artist like Peter Sis there's a temptation to write off the art of Jeffers as straightforward and plain. Take a closer look at the book, however, and all kinds of tiny slights and thought out whiffs of detail catch the eye. Things like the bear's Mark Spitz-ish ancestor who was a paper airplane winner in 1972. Or, even more subtle, the final image where the bear merrily water a tree, a single bare light bulb glowing in his trailer, not thirty yards away. Going back to the style of the artist, Jeffers has always had a weakness for critters and creatures that toddle about on two thin stick-like legs. He avoided it with the penguin in Lost and Found, which was only right since penguins are meant for waddling, not toddling. Generally it is a look that has suited his small animals and people quite well. So it was strange to look through this book a second time and see that th