The celebration of the 100th day of class is a popular addition to the school calendar, reflected in a recent spate of read-alouds with centenary themes. McNamara (Too Many Valentines, below) joins the centennial bandwagon with this first offering in a classroom-based easy reader series featuring a small group of multi-ethnic first-graders from Robin Hill School. This story features a red-haired girl named Heather who is excited about the planned celebration with each child invited to bring 100 tiny items to school to share with the class. She gathers 100 buttons of all sorts, but then is unable to attend the party because she is sick. The class delays the celebration to wait for Heather’s return, and each child then shares 101 items on the next school day. McNamara’s clever, humorous story is a natural for sharing on the 101st day of school, with opportunities for related math activities (counting, sorting, adding, and learning about time), but it also serves well for children who are just beginning to read simple stories on their own. Gordon’s loose watercolor and ink drawings are full of tiny, humorous details, such as Hannah’s buttons flying all over after she sneezes or 100 spiders escaping from their box on a child’s desk. The Robin Hill School stories will find a ready audience on easy reader shelves in both school and public libraries. (Easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85536-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2003
In his third beginning reader about Otto the robot, Milgrim (See Otto, 2002, etc.) introduces another new friend for Otto, a little mouse named Pip. The simple plot involves a large balloon that Otto kindly shares with Pip after the mouse has a rather funny pointing attack. (Pip seems to be in that I-point-and-I-want-it phase common with one-year-olds.) The big purple balloon is large enough to carry Pip up and away over the clouds, until Pip runs into Zee the bee. (“Oops, there goes Pip.”) Otto flies a plane up to rescue Pip (“Hurry, Otto, Hurry”), but they crash (and splash) in front of some hippos with another big balloon, and the story ends as it begins, with a droll “See Pip point.” Milgrim again succeeds in the difficult challenge of creating a real, funny story with just a few simple words. His illustrations utilize lots of motion and basic geometric shapes with heavy black outlines, all against pastel backgrounds with text set in an extra-large typeface. Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be welcome additions to the limited selection of funny stories for children just beginning to read. (Easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85116-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
Floyd and Denise update “The Tortoise and the Hare” for primary readers, captioning each soft-focus, semi-rural scene with a short, simple sentence or two. Rabbit proposes running to school, while his friend Turtle takes the bus: no contest at first, as the bus makes stop after deliberate stop, but because Rabbit pauses at a pushcart for a snack, a fresh-looking Turtle greets his panting, disheveled friend on the school steps. There is no explicit moral, but children will get the point—and go on to enjoy Margery Cuyler’s longer and wilder Road Signs: A Harey Race with a Tortoise (p. 957). (Easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-15-202679-7
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2000
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