ALA Booklist (Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2004)

The cast, dynamic format, and some of the same plot elements that appeared in the Klise sisters' Regarding the Fountain (1998) enjoy a reprise here. This time, Geyser Creek Middle School's principal isn't pleased with the sixth-grade's enthusiasm for reconnecting with fountain-designer Florence Waters to help resolve the school's need for a cafeteria sink. While the kids attempt to contact Ms. Waters and grow increasingly concerned about her silence, the reader has an opportunity to sift through the newspaper accounts about evil Senator MOM and other stories that have a bearing on Ms. Waters. The subplot concerning the principal's e-mail attempts to get his staff to cease communication via nonelectronic means will amuse adults more than kids, but the array of nicely designed documentation (sketches, handwritten cards, etc.) and the twist at the end of the story will keep many young bibliophiles content.

Horn Book (Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2005)

In this sequel to Regarding the Fountain, Sam N.'s sixth-grade class deal with the middle school cafeteria's clogged sink and write to their now-missing dear friend Flo Waters to come up with a design for a new one. The story is told with the author's usual zany mix of correspondence and is illustrated with a stream of black-and-white drawings and an outpouring of inventive layouts and typography.

Kirkus Reviews

This amusing sequel to Regarding the Fountain (1999) parodies politics, business, and beans. The cafeteria sink at Geyser Creek Middle School is clogged and stinky. The sixth-graders want Florence Waters to design a replacement, perhaps one that includes an aromatherapy bar or a bean demolisher. But Florence is missing! She vanished on a trip to China investigating the rare Sinkiang Blinking Spotted Suckerfish, and the sixth-graders are determined to find her. Meanwhile, the price of ice cream skyrockets, school lunches are replaced with beans, and AIR-igate, Inc. promises to replace unexpected weather with man-made nighttime rain. The intrepid heroes must rescue Florence, solve the mysteries of beans and Spotted Suckerfish, and get a new sink for the school cafeteria, all on their class trip's budget. Told in letters, notes, news reports, and drawings, a pun-filled adventure loaded with fun. (Fiction. 9-13)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Using the same """"scrapbook"""" style as their Regarding the Fountain, sisters Kate Klise and M. Sarah Klise visit the students of Geyser Creek Middle School in Regarding the Sink: Where, Oh Where, Did Waters Go? The school seeks out Florence Waters, who devised the eccentric fountain for Dry Creek Middle School (in the previous book, which PW called """"a good-natured story with an irrepressible main character who won't take no for an answer"""") to design a new cafeteria sink-despite 90% cuts to the school's budget. .

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-In this sequel to Regarding the Fountain (HarperCollins, 1998), Florence Waters, the artist who designed the school fountain, is needed to design a new cafeteria sink, but she is missing. Finding her becomes the focus of the sixth-grade class from Geyser Creek Middle School in Missouri. A U.S. Senator, the principal's rich mother, Chinese Sinkiang Blinking Spotted Suckerfish, big business, and beans all play a role in this mystery that eventually leads to a class trip to China. The story is conveyed through letters, student drawings and poems, advertisements, e-mails, school assignments, facsimiles, stock reports, newspaper articles, a variety of other kinds of documents, and cartoons. Each page is designed to look like the kind of document it represents. Piecing the story and clues together is satisfying. Introduce this book to savvy readers who are ready for the jump to a clever, unconventional reading experience.-Jean Gaffney, Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library, Miamisburg, OH Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.