FARM ANIMALS

This Level 2 Scholastic Reader features bright color photos of ten common types of farm animals, each with a rhymed first-person introduction and a brief note on the animal’s job or products it produces. The gallery is book-ended by a full range of instructional tools for parents or teachers—including a small-type page of techniques for shared reading, a dozen test questions, a five-word glossary and a proto-introduction to parts of speech. Notably uneven in quality of writing (not to mention accuracy)—Horse: “I stand up all day. / I eat grass and hay. / But what I like best / is to gallop and play”—the verse is unlikely to provide much of a draw, but the pictures are strong on child appeal and the volume is replete with “teachable moments.” (Easy reader. 5-7)