FREDDY & FRITO AND THE CLUBHOUSE RULES

Fox kit Freddy and little mouse Frito’s imaginative play dates are hampered by the rules of their respective homes, so why don’t these two friends build a big clubhouse all their own?

One day, when both Frito’s and Freddy’s homes are unavailable for play, they schedule a meet-up at the local park to search for a place of their own: “A place with no rules!” they agree. Settling on an inviting tree, the two friends get started on a clubhouse, building with borrowed items from home. They soon find homemaking is no easy task and friendship is not without conflict, but their small spat is quickly resolved. They build bigger and announce a clubhouse-warming party, inviting their families to join in on the “No rules!” clubhouse fun. Horrified by the resultant rule-free chaos, they devise a clever scheme, brewing a foul clubhouse stew in order to drive off the guests and restore peace to their new home away from home. Lively illustrations and varied layouts add to the appeal of this story, which features descriptive language well-suited for emerging readers to grow their vocabularies.

This playful, lighthearted lesson about peacekeeping and place-keeping serves as the introduction of Friend’s Freddy & Frito, and readers will look forward to their further adventures.