A relaxing day is ruined for three pets by the arrival of a new vacuum cleaner.The pets must work together to take down the destructive intruder. Part of the “Ready to Read” books, this level one reader is primarily written in two word sentences with many onomatopoeias. Kids will enjoy the lively illustrations and get a kick out of some of the grosser items that end up in the vacuum.
Tag Archives: early reader
Critter-Cam Monkey Cam by Margie Palatini
This energetic pre-level one reader follows a monkey as it zips around and encounters other animals. The pages juxtapose the reader’s view of the monkey’s interactions with the monkey’s point of view through the monkey-cam strapped to its head. Most pages contain only one or two words, making it a great book for beginning readers.
This author and illustrator also team up for the adorable Kitty-Cam and Shark-Cam, so kids can enjoy the opportunity to compare the videos the animals are creating.
See Otto Say Hi! by David Milgrim
Otto the robot is desperately trying to befriend Tweet the bird. He tries everything from offering a full bag of chips to baking a lovely cake for Tweet. Otto eventually finds more success than he could have imagined. The book is a pre-level one reader with short sentences that use common sight words. Other words are either decodable or come with a picture clue, making it a great choice for beginning readers. This engaging and accessible book is part of “The adventures of Otto” series.
Frog Can Hop
written by Laura Gehl and illustrated by Fred Blunt
Frog can do many things – hop, shop, bop and chop. Pig can….flop. But, Frog suddenly flops and Pig takes over and hops, shops, mops, bops and pops. He pops a little too much popcorn and Frog jumps in to hop mop, and flop with him. They can do it all together!
Simple, repetitive sentences and engaging illustrations make this short reader a perfect book for a young student. There is an added word box in the front and questions in the back to increase depth of understanding. Put this in your library for kids that love “Elephant and Piggie”. They’ll thank you!
Styx and Scones in the Sticky Wand
by Jay Cooper
Miss Hildy and Miss Hattie, two friendly witches, leave Styx (a purple cat) and Scones (a ginger colored dog) alone in their cottage when they go off to gather some fenfruit. They instruct their pets to leave various magical items alone, including a crystal ball, potions and herbs and the flying brooms. They don’t say anything about the stick on the mantel. So, Scones figures it’s ok to play with, right? Well, mayhem ensues as the two animals scuffle over the magical stick, turning Styx into a variety of purple animals and adding a ship, pirates and many other magical things to the mix. Upon the return of the witches, they learn that the stick is just that, not a magic wand. Yet, they turn Miss Hattie into a jar of peanut butter. So, what is that about?
This hilarious beginning graphic novel is perfect for new readers, who are introduced to the format by Styx and Scones on the first few pages. Cartoon-like illustrations are bright and the text is very accessible. This book will not be on the library shelves for long! Highly recommended.
Cat Sees Snow
written by Laura Gehl and illustrated by Fred Blunt
Cat, Dog and Pig approach the snow in a variety of ways and all enjoy the cold, white stuff by the end. This bright and cheery story is perfect for the brand new reader. The repeated text and short length (less than 100 words), makes this book very accessible for young students. The colorful line drawn illustrations complement the story and move it along. The notes to parents/guardians at the beginning of the book are quite helpful. This is a solid choice for new readers, who will cheer on the characters and cheer for themselves after reading a book!
What’s in Your Body? (Ready-To-Read: Level 2-Super Gross)
written by Ximena Hastings; illustrated by Alison Hawkins
Blood, boogers, pus, gas and other bodily excretions and their origins are discussed in this early reader. Do you want to know how many skin cells you shed per hour? How about the mites on your eyelashes? You’ll learn all about those topics and more in this short, but informative, book.
Cartoon-like illustrations and photographs accompanied by simple informative text pack a lot of stuff into a relatively short book. A glossary, bold-faced type and a skeleton craft at the end will help would-be scientists learn basics of the messier parts of human anatomy and physiology. It might be too much information for its target audience. But, they’ll be happily ‘grossed out’ and will certainly share what they’ve learned.
The Doggie Defendant(Ready-to-Read Graphics: Level 3-Judge Kim and Kids’ Court)
written by Milo Stone, Shawn Martinbrough and Joseph P. Illidge; illustrated by Christopher Jordan
Digger, Kim’s dog, is accused of ruining Neil’s birthday party. So, Digger has his day in court with Miles defending him and Neil as the prosecutor. Judge Kim presides and the truth is discovered!
This simple graphic novel is a wonderful introduction to the format of comics, with helpful tips for reading, such as the difference between speech and thought bubbles, panels and direction of the storyline on each page (left to right, top to bottom). Diverse characters round out a simple, fun story that will engage early readers. They will ask for more!
A Pig, a Fox, and a Fox
A Pig, a Fox, and a Fox is by Jonathan Fenske and is part of the Penguin early readers series. This book is part of a collection of Pig and Fox books by Fenske. In this rhyming book Fox has a toy fox that looks just like him. He uses it to pull pranks on his friend Pig. In the first prank, Fox puts the fox on top of blocks and Pig, seeing his friend in peril, saves fox. He seems amused by the trick of it not being his real friend. In the second prank Pig seems less amused, and by the third chapter they are both done and put the toy away. Both Pig and Fox get frustrated and mad throughout the book with each other and the pranks that are being played. Fox gets progressively more and more injured with each prank and by the end end his injuries are a bit unsettling (black eye, bruises, a band-aid and scratches). The injuries and lack of kindness between friends didn’t make me want to read this book and had me questioning why it was necessary. I have read other Pig and Fox books and have found them funny, this book fell short.
There’s A Fly Guy In My Soup
A boy had a pet fly.
Right from the very first sentence we know that Arnold will take us on a whimsical adventure. After all, how many people relish the idea of a pet fly?
The boy’s name is buzz, which is very convenient for Fly Guy as he can easily pronounce his best buddy’s name!
This is book #12 in the series. We find Buzz and his family are on vacation. As the family goes to lunch at the hotel restaurant, Fly Guy goes to lunch in the hotel trash. Gross humor ensues (he is a fly of course) that most kids will find very funny. After he gets all yucky and covered with garbage, he decides he needs a bath. The unfortunate use of a diner’s soup as his bath cause a lot of commotion and mess.
Young readers cannot get enough of Fly Guy and Buzz. Like the other titles in this series, this book will also be in high demand.