Tag Archives: early reader

What’s in Your Body? (Ready-To-Read: Level 2-Super Gross)

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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)

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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

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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

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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.