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.
This book is part of a Ready to Read series that Jason Tharp writes and illustrates. All of these books use color coded speech bubbles to convey the character’s dialogue. This is great for emerging readers. As a Level 1 book, this book has mostly short sentences and easy to sound out words. In this book Bunny will not jump, despite him being a bunny and Big (a bear) giving it his all to persuade Bunny to jump. As the story moves along, Big and Bunny discover it is their differences that make Bunny not feel like jumping. Once they acknowledge they are different and that their differences give them different capabilities, they talk about its not what it looks like when you do it, it is whether or not you are having fun while doing it. This is a great message for kids!
One of the best things about Jason Tharp’s books is that he involves the reader. Children love that Big can SEE them and asks them to push buttons or shake the book to help the story move along. Despite this, this book is not one of my favorites in the collection. There are less interactive pieces to it and although I love the message, a bunny just refusing to jump is not as funny as the other books. Having said that, there is no doubt that kids will enjoy this book, especially if they know the characters from previous ones.
The world needs more books about Shirley Chisholm. This Ready to Ready book gives a solid background of the activist from her childhood in Barbados to her first run for Congress and her first run for President. The details and explanations were easy to follow and presented in a relatable way for even kids below a Level 3 who may have the book read to them. It contains all the important parts of Shirley’s life and quotes she is famous for.
The illustrations by Kaitlyn Shea O’Connor are great, colorful and eye-catching.
My one complaint is that the text is very close together and there are alot of words on one page. This is difficult for our leveled readers who might pick up the book.
I recommend this book if you don’t have any other biographies about Shirley Chisholm. It definitely has great information. It is not one that will fly off the shelf and the text spacing will make it harder to read for the younger kids.