Oh, YEZZZ! Fly Guy's Amazing Tricks by Tedd Arnold

THE AMAZING FLY GUY CIRCUS
TODAY!

Buzz's best buddy Fly Guy has learned some new tricks to amaze and delight his neighborhood friends.

"Get ready," said Buzz. "NOW... the BACKSTROKE!"/

Fly Guy swims the backstroke across the bird bath.

Then he demonstrates the "Dizzy Doozy," flying in a spiral around a girl's head. She's dizzy, but she's not delighted.

Luckily, just then Buzz's mom calls him to supper. He can't resist showing off Buzz's new tricks to his parents. Buzz does the backstroke in Mom's milk. He does the Dizzie Doozy around Dad's head. And for his finale, he does the Big Booger, hanging from Dad's nose.

Buzz's parents are not delighted either.

So after dinner Buzz takes Fly Guy outside.

"I have an idea," he tells Fly Guy. "Do your tricks only when I say NOW!"

Just then a big kid comes along, slurping a milkshake.

"Are you talking to a bug, Bug Brains?" he sneers.

"Answer me, NOW!" yelled the big kid!

"YEZZZ!" said Fly Guy.

Fly Guy goes into action. He backstrokes in the big kid's milkshake, does the Dizzy Doozy around his head, and the Big Booger on his nose. Grossed out, the big kid staggers backward, right into a garbage can, which turns over and releases reinforcements--a swarm of a zillion unhappy flies who chase the bully until he's out of sight.

It's another case of an unlikely friendzhip, as Fly Guy once more savezz the day, in Tedd Arnold's Fly Guy's Amazing Tricks (Fly Guy 14) (Cartwheel Books). Beginning readers love Arnold's googly-eyed characters and the easy-reading vocabulary in this best-selling zeries, great for practicing their reading skills over the summer (but don't tell them that's what they're doing). Just enjoy the gigglez as Fly Guy does his thing. Pair this one with Tedd Arnold's recent top-selling Fly Guy and the Alienzz (Fly Guy 18), NOW!

"Arnold's distinctive and expressive black-dotted, ball-eyed characters and occasional plays on words will keep young readers smiling and rooting for this duo," sayzzz School Library Journal.

It's How You Play the Game! Pete the Cat--Play Ball! by James Dean

Pete has a mitt. Pete has a bat and ball.

What will Pete do today?

It's Game Day for Pete and his baseball team, appropriately named "The Rocks." They are at their ballpark to play a team called "The Rolls."

Both teams warm up, batting and playing catch, and then it's time for the umpire to shout, " PLAY BALL!"

The Rocks are up first. It's "batter up!" but Pete has to wait for his turn in the batting order, while the lead-off batter takes his turn first.

CRACK!

The first batter gets a hit and runs to first base. He's "safe!" Now Pete cheers:

"Way to go!"

Pete comes up to bat. He swings too low at the first pitch and misses. It's a strike. Pete swings too high at the next ball, but misses again. Pete misses the third pitch, too. He OUT!

But Pete is not sad. He did his BEST!

He watches his friend Ben hit a homerun.

"Way to go!" Pete cheers.

The Rolls come up to bat and Pete and his team take their places in the field. On the first swing, the ball is hit right toward Pete. He gets under the ball and holds up his mitt to catch it.

But Pete drops it.

But Pete tried his best and he is not sad. At his next turn at bat he watches the pitches more carefully. The pitcher throws too high and too low, and Pete gets a walk, going to first base. It's not a hit, but it's still COOL. Now Pete knows he's in position to score a run, and when the next batter hits the ball a long way, he runs as fast as he can around the bases. He's rounding third and heading for home plate, and here comes the fielder's throw....

You win some and you lose some, in James Dean's excellent introduction to baseball for rookie readers, in his I-Can-Readbook, Pete the Cat: Play Ball! (My First I Can Read) (HarperCollins). Everybody is a winner, as Dean not only reinforces the basic rules and skills of the game, but has his main character model the precepts of sportsmanship as well. Pete shows how to support his teammates, respect the officials' calls, do his best, and, most of all, enjoy playing the game. Even with beginning reader basic vocabulary, Dean manages to build some tension into his game play and teaches that, win or lose, it's how you play the old ball game.

And for more Pete the Cat prep on another kind of competition, share this one with James Dean's Pete the Cat and the Supercool Science Fair.

Good Grief! My Kite Is Stuck and Other Stories (A Duck, Duck, Porcupine Story) by Salina Yoon

"Oh, No! My kite is stuck in the tree!" Duck laments.

Duck can't fly that high. Now Baby Duck will not get to see the kite rise high in the sky.

Porcupine steps in to help.

"Don't worry, Baby Duck. I'll knock it down with my ball," said Porcupine.

"OOPS!"

Now Porcupine's ball is stuck in the tree.

As Baby Duck looks on, perplexed, Duck throws Baby Duck's hula hoop up into the tree to knock down the ball. Now the kite, the ball, and the hula hoop are stuck in the tree.

Duck is exasperated. With a mighty heave she throws Porcupine into the tree! Now Porcupine, Baby Duck's hula hoop, his ball, and Duck's kite are stuck in the tree.

Baby Duck looks out at the reader as if to say, "Can you believe this?" She walks off, page right, and with a page turn, returns with a long ladder.

"Just what we needed!" says Big Duck.

She climbs the long ladder up into the tree and sits down happily in the tree with Porcupine.

"We can finally play with our toys!"

Baby Duck gives the reader THE LOOK.

The venerable noodle tale is alive and well, in Salina Yoon's My Kite is Stuck! and Other Stories (A Duck, Duck, Porcupine Book) (Bloomsbury Press, 2017). Baby Duck's deadpan face says it all, as Duck and Porcupine play their doofus roles drolly in this book in Yoon's delightful beginning reader series. Yoon's storytelling is simple, but her character development is complex and her simple blackline and flat color illustrations capture the funny misadventures of the well-intentioned Duck and Porcupine with the same ironic humor that Mo Willems brought to his Elephant and Piggie series. A first purchase for emergent readers.

Rock On! Charlie the Ranch Dog Rock Star by Ree Drummond

YAWN! RELAXING WITH MAMA IS THE BEST AFTER A LONG DAY OF RANCH WORK.

Charlie stretches luxuriantly for a little down time watching the tube--when he sees something  that perks his ears up, if that were possible, that is.

Hey!  Check that cool cat, er, dog!

COOL SHADES! EVERYONE CHEERS FOR HIM!

I WANT TO BE A ROCK STAR DOG! NO MORE WORKING MY PAWS TO THE BONE!

HEL-LO, CHARLIE THE ROCK STAR!

No more working cowdog! Charlie decides to go for glitz and glam!

He rustles up some stylish sunglasses and the au courant slouch cap, tosses a silk scarf carelessly around his neck, and admires his makeover in the mirror.

"I'M THE GREATEST!"

Now it's time for the de rigueur celebrity photo shoot. The boy and his sister get the camera and take some publicity shots. Ahh, yessss! Charlie has finally found his look and is living the life!! No more chasing muddy cows for him. He's a changed dog.

Or is he? What's that smell? Is Mama makin' BACON?

Charlie's second career is put on hold as he heads to beg for bacon in his bowl, in Ree Drummond's I-Can-Read Charlie the Ranch Dog: Rock Star (I Can Read Level 1) (HarperCollins, 2015). With school underway, or about to be, all over the land, it's time to brush up on those reading skills, and who better to read with than that laid-back Bassett, Charlie the Ranch Dog. Luckily for early readers, Charlie the Ranch Dog has many starring guest appearances in his own series which practically offer every reader star status.