Gator "Pair-o-Dice": Gator Halloween by Stephanie Calmenson and Joanna Cole

All dressed up for Halloween, Amy and Allie Gator are back in book four of The Gator Girls series by Stephanie Calmenson and Joanna Cole, author of the popular Magic School Bus series.

When Amy and Ally hear that there will be Swamp Street Halloween Costume Parade and Contest, they are sure that they will be the winners, especially after they make a slightly scary visit to Madame Lulu, neighborhood fortune teller, to find out how to win. When the Gator Girls come up with the idea of dressing as a pair of dice for the event, they are sure they'll beat out the annoying Gator Guys, Marvin and Dave.

While at Michael Angelo's art shop to buy black and white paint, they learn that Mike's pet lizard Louie is lost and resolve to look for Louie while the paint dries on their dice costumes. Unluckily, (for a pair of dice, that is), on their way to the contest the Gator Girls spot Louie the lizard hiding in a crack, and by the time they coax him out, they're too late for the judging of the contest. Luckily, however, the Gator Guys are late, too, and Amy's and Allie's bouncy friend Gracie wins with her basketball costume. Things end well, though, when the Gator Girls earn a great reward--free drawing lessons--for returning Louie the lizard to Mike.

Lynn Munsinger's illustrations are wonderfully whimsical as always, with some clever Halloween trappings ('gator-faced Jack-o'-lanterns) and plenty of snooty snouts in the air as the Gator Girls and Guys carry on a friendly boy-girl rivalry.

Other terrific beginning-chapter books in this series are The Gator Girls, in which the girls wind up a Camp Wogga-Bog with (ugh!) Gator Guy Marvin; Rockin' Reptiles, in which Gracie invites both Amy and Ally Gator to use her one extra ticket to a Rockin' Reptiles concert; and Get Well, Gators! in which Amy has to carry on at the talent show without Allie Gator, who's laid up with a snoutful of swamp flu.

With Accelerated Reader levels between 2.8 and 3.1 and plenty of funny illustrations sprinkled through their nine chapters, these books are just right for the beginning-chapter reader. The Gator Girls and the Gator Guys get into humorous situations which all kids will recognize, and the friendly rivalry between the boy and girl 'gators give the stories a bit of suspense. You go, Gator Girls!