> Skip to content
  • Published: 15 January 2015
  • ISBN: 9781580896719
  • Imprint: Charlesbridge Children
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 32
  • RRP: $32.99

Field-Trip Fiasco




In this fifth installment of a beloved series, Mrs. Hartwell takes her students on a field trip to the zoo and learns to let go of her overly structured lesson plans.

Foolproof Field-Trip Tip #10: Have FUN!

Mrs. Hartwell, still weary from the last class field trip, is fully prepared for this field trip to the zoo. She has her list of field-trip tips and her handy-dandy just-in-case-something-unexpected-happens bag. Will all of her preparation be enough?

With their observation sheets in hand, students begin exploring the zoo. Soon everyone finds out that they are too busy writing to actually observe everything going on around them! A bale of hay, an elephant trunk full of water, and a parrot’s—ahem—droppings, all spell trouble for Mrs. Hartwell and her class.

Mrs. Hartwell has the great idea to collect the observation sheets and save the actual writing for later. The class continues on to see monkeys, lions, hyenas and actually observe what is going on around them. When Mrs. Hartwell and her students meet in the middle, the result is lots of fun (and lots of learning, too)!

The story is accompanied by hilarious illustrations by Judy Love, capturing every detail of this wild field trip.

  • Published: 15 January 2015
  • ISBN: 9781580896719
  • Imprint: Charlesbridge Children
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 32
  • RRP: $32.99

Also by JULIE DANNEBERG

See all

Praise for Field-Trip Fiasco

Praise for The Big Test

  • "Once they stop laughing at the spot-on depiction of standardized testing, teachers should take a page from Mrs. Hartwell's book."--Kirkus Reviews

  • Praise for Last Day Blues
  • "What a perfect end to the school year."--Kirkus Reviews

  • Praise for First Day Jitters
  • "Every child who has moved to a new school or is simply reluctant to start a school year can identify with this wittily drawn and suspensefully told story. . . . Funny and insightful."--Booklist