The illustrations are charming.  I’m not sure the story is as charming.  Times are hard in the village when a young girl finds a chicken which seems to have fallen off a truck.  Markings on a broken crate indicate that the chicken belongs to someone named Izzy Pippik.  The girl gets permission to keep the chicken until she can locate its rightful owner.  She protects both the hen and her eggs from those who would want to eat them, insisting that they must be cared for until their owner is found.  Soon there is a flock over-running the village, and bringing in strangers curious to see the spectacle, until business is booming again.  By the time Izzy Pippik finds his way back to the village, he decides to give them to the village.  It’s not a bad story; I’m just not sure kids are going to care.

Ewe! Ick! I’ve heard of anglerfish before, and I know that down in the depths of the ocean where there is no light creatures have not evolved with physical beauty in mind, but yuck!  The color photos that fill this book bring to life in all their ugly detail creatures most of us will never personally encounter in our lives.  The text is packed with clear and understandable information about many species of fish that live in the depths of the ocean, including why they have adapted the way they have to their environment, how we study them, and some of the dangers they face.

Obviously trying to target reluctant readers with high-interest topics, this series seems to be more about marketing the substance.  This is the third one in the series that I have reviewed, and like the others, there’s much attention given to dramatic images and fonts, and just a little, relatively shallow, information (okay, I did learn that the legend of the Loch Ness monster has only been circulating since the 1960s, and that oarfish can be 50 feet long).  I guess it’s not bad for what it’s trying to be, but I think there’s better available.

Fans of Egan’s picture book, The Pink Refrigerator, will be able to follow the further adventures of Dodsworth in this series as he sets off to explore the world.  This is one of those bridging books for young readers that claims to be a chapter book (4 short chapters), but would be just as much at home among the Everybody Books, as there are full color illustrations on every page, with limited text.  As Dodsworth sets off to explore the city of Rome, the reader is exposed to a variety of world-famous landmarks, and his traveling companion the duck adds a bit of comic relief through his constant misunderstandings and near mishaps.  When Dodsworth loses his luggage and the pair have no money, the duck comes to the rescue by “finding” funds in the Trevi Fountain.  It’s a cute story, with a bit of humor, and it just might spark some students’ interest in seeing some of these places for themselves someday.

I’ve read several in this series now, and I really like them.  I think they are great tools for creating a bridge for comic book fans to stretch themselves into chapter books.  They are beginning chapter books, with large fonts, short chapters, and a few full-page color illustrations that still have a comic book feel to them.  Not just the illustrations capture the classic comics, but so do the plot lines and writing style.  This one tells of Superman rescuing Metropolis from the evil Brainiac who has developed the technology to travel the universe, shrinking whole cities and capturing them under glass for his collection.  It’s easy enough to be accessible to struggling readers without dumbing down the story.  The plot and style and characters will allow it to appeal both to young readers, and to older struggling readers.  Discussion questions and writing prompts in the back add to the usefulness of these books as teaching tools, but students will be drawn to them for recreational reading as well.

It’s kind of a flat little story:  the characters are just sort of there, without any real personality to them, and the plot is kind of bland.  It’s a beginning chapter book with large font and lots of black and white illustrations, which tells the story of a group of young vampires who go on a field trip to the county fair, and happen to overhear a gang of theives who’ve been robbing schools discussing their scheme, so they scare them into confessing to the police.  It doesn’t really feel like a real story kids would read for fun, but like something that would be used in a reading class.

This autobiography of Caldecott winning author/illustrator Allen Say traces his life from a sheltered childhood along seashore of Japan, when his mother introduced him to books and drawing early in order to keep him safely at home, through the disruptions brought upon his family during WWII, his estrangement from his father, his efforts to pursue his artistic education, his relationships with his Sensei and fellow student, his early career, and his decision to come to America.  He had to take on a great deal of independence at a very young age, and he tells his story very honestly.  It is illustrated with photographs and his own illustrations, which demonstrate the breadth of his skill in a variety of styles.

I blame the poor quality of this book on the editors’ failures.  There are some good poems in the mix, but the over-all volume is a flop.  The author’s running metacognitive commentary on her poems is often arrogant and patronizing, and always distracting.  That sort of thing should be saved for and English textbook in the poetry unit.  The illustrations do nothing to enhance the reader’s experience of the poems, and the good poems are tucked in among a bunch of less-than-fabulous ones.  This same review applies to two books I’ve read by the same author-illustrator pair.