A carefully formatted book with supportive features baked in brings new energy to the task of learning to read.
High-interest, low-reading-level stories present a fun way to reinforce phonics skills for readers who need a boost.
Best friends Meg and Greg face tricky situations and daring adventures in several entertaining tales. Dilemmas range from replacing a sibling’s missing fish to helping ranch animals escape from a wildfire; they will hold readers’ interest as they create opportunities to bolster phonics skills. Each of the four segments contains episodic chapters in prose paired with comics-style panels, cartoon illustrations, and speech bubbles that will foster engagement and support reading development. Labeled illustrations and end-of-segment extension activities provide additional opportunities for practice centered on the specific phonogram (“ck,” for instance, or “sh”) highlighted in that section. These stories are geared toward emerging readers who are a bit older than the typical beginning reader and are thoughtfully designed to appeal to this older audience with eye-catching graphics and more-complex situations. This is Book 1 in a series intended for children just learning to read or readers with dyslexia and other learning difficulties, to be shared alongside a more experienced reader. Short explanations and strategies for each new phonogram introduced as well as plenty of helpful tips for using the book to support learning are included. Dyslexia-friendly features are integrated into the book. All characters present as white in the illustrations.
A carefully formatted book with supportive features baked in brings new energy to the task of learning to read. (glossary, tips) (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 6-9)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4598-2490-4
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Readers will go for these pals who stick together in a bond as solid as stone.
More fun with Stick and Stone!
The BFFs whose exploits were chronicled in two earlier picture books (2015, 2021), illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld, have joined the graphic-novel universe. This second graphic novel starring the duo, after Stick and Stone Explore and More (2022), is divided into two chapters, each followed by appealing, simple activities. The first chapter finds the pals picnicking with friends near a cave. Timid worrywart Stone has misgivings, but those issues are resolved satisfactorily. Once over those hurdles, Stone confronts spelunking, a word he loves (as will readers) until he learns what it entails. Stone’s not into cave exploring, but what he discovers when he finds himself in a cave are unexpected—and not entirely unpleasant—surprises and, afterward, a burgeoning new friendship. In the second chapter, Stone effects a daring rescue as he extracts Stick from the jaws of an overly enthusiastic puppy, an adventure that leads the pair to adopt a “pet” that undergoes a spectacular transformation, necessitating a tender farewell. This charmer is chock-full of humor, heart, adventure, and the joys of friendship. Stick and Stone are endearingly winning characters with distinctive, expressive personalities. Kids will savor the dynamic, funny digital illustrations; follow the panels and speech bubbles easily; and appreciate the font, which varies with the narrative’s onomatopoeia.
Readers will go for these pals who stick together in a bond as solid as stone. (Graphic fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-358-54938-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
Dog lovers and young Dr. Moreaus alike will guffaw.
Split pages allow mixing and matching sections of 10 purebred canines.
Forget cockapoos and labradoodles—flipping the three segments here back and forth makes for some truly unlikely hybrids: “I’m a Bulldog— / Yorkshire Terrier— / Great Dane mix”; “I’m a Komondor— / Greyhound— / Poodle mix”; “I’m a Dachshund— / Shar-Pei— / Dalmatian mix.” Ball (Flip-O-Storic, 2011) cranks up the drollery with a set of big, handsome pooches drawn and colored to set off their distinctive characteristics, posed naturalistically against plain yellow backgrounds, and looking up or out with doggy devotion. She also adds the occasional tail-pulling puppy, silly hat, or other comical side business. In addition to the identifying captions, Garczynski contributes a table of descriptive information about each breed at the beginning. This includes to-scale silhouettes that are helpful since all of the interior dogs are rendered the same size so that the transitions more or less match up. (Although the Yorkie’s stubby forelegs still make a peculiar mismatch with the lanky hind limbs of the Great Dane.) Also, each sturdy strip features a “personal” observation, such as the Dalmatian’s “I’m known for my distinctive spots. If I open my mouth, you’ll even see spots in there.” Aside from the note of condescension in the Shar-Pei’s claim that its tongue “was once thought to ward off evil spirits,” these last are at least innocuous and sometimes informative.
Dog lovers and young Dr. Moreaus alike will guffaw. (Novelty picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7892-1310-5
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Abbeville Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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