Watch Out, World--Rosy Cole Is Going Green Book

Rosy Cole is thrilled when Mrs. Oliphant selects her idea, “Nature’s Gifts,” as one of the themes for the school’s fall fair. Rosy’s team will be gathering rocks, shells, and sea-glass, and with a little bit of paint, they’ll turn natural history into works of art. Now that’s what Rosy calls imagination!

But Rosy’s imagination gets the better of her when she decides to babysit a friend’ composting worms. With thousands of wigglers to take care of, things get more than a little messy. How will Rosy ever get out of this one?

Children's Literature

Watch Out World is the latest in a series of chapter books featuring Rosy Cole, a perky middle schooler at a private girl's school in Manhattan. Rosy's adventures of setting up a booth for the annual fundraiser become a framework for weaving in information about ammonites and composting with redwriggler worms and blatella germanica, better known as cockroaches. Greenwald seasons the mix with school girl competition and a hint of Rosy's preadolescent crush on Donald, the ecologically minded brother of a friend. The chatty text, line-drawing illustrations, and fairly large print make this book and the series suitable for newly fluent readers. Greenwald's Rosy is a match for Junie B. Jones but not up to the standard of the classics of this genre—Ramona or Harriet the Spy. Reviewer: Mary Hynes-Berry