Walkin' the Dog: Dog Days by Karen English

Gavin dashes to the window. No Danielle stomping back home.

"Come on, let's hurry," he says over his shoulder. He reaches way underneath Danielle's bed, and pulls out the candy.

"Why does she keep it under her bed?" Richard whispered.

"To hide it from me," Gavin laughs his cackle laugh. Richard smiles.

"No touching Danielle's things, Richard," he warns.

He picks up the tin and gets the top off. He picks two, then carefully spreads out what's left to fill the empty spaces, and pushes the tin back under Danielle's bed. Then, just as he stands up, he hears, "Hey, CATCH!"

Richard is sailing Danielle's snow globe--the one she got when her middle-school choir traveled to New York, the one made of heavy glass and not plastic--right at Gavin.

Gavin thought that having Richard over after school meant that at last he had found a friend at his new school, Carver Elementary. But when Richard pronounces his educational video games boring, Gavin comes up with something he thinks will impress Richard, a chance to fool his bossy big sister and have some candy besides. But when Danielle's snow globe shatters on the floor, his impromptu plan lands him in big trouble.

Danielle knows instantly who was in her room, and Gavin finds himself grounded. Worse still, his Aunt Myrtle shows up for a short visit with her disagreeable dog, Carlotta, just as Gavin's parents are looking for a suitable punishment for the snow globe incident.

And true to form, Aunt Myrtle has a unwelcome suggestion.

"Why, I think Gavin here should pay his sister what that thing cost.

I'll let him walk Carlotta.  It'll be his little job, to learn the value of a dollar."

Carlotta is a pampered Pomeranian who growls and shows sharp little teeth that look as if they would like to sink into Gavin's ankles whenever he walks by. And she never goes out without two pink bows on her ears, a pink sparkly collar and leash, and her beloved slimy Chew-Chew in her mouth.

Gavin knows right away that the kids in his class are not going to be impressed when they see him dragging Carlotta along, and to make things even worse, Aunt Myrtle makes him carry a special plastic bag to pick up her poop. Gavin hates to think what horrible nickname class bully Harper is going to hang on him when he sees him scooping dog poo at the park. Not cool. Gavin knows that'll be the kiss of death for ever making friends at Carver.

But despite himself, Gavin begins to enjoy the dog walking just a little, especially when he figures out that he can skateboard while he walks Carlotta. Richard admits that trick is sorta awesome, and Gavin begins to hope he can make it through the five days of Aunt Myrtle's visit without any more damage to his reputation.

And then, while Gavin is at school, Carlotta digs under the backyard fence and disappears. Despite himself, Gavin is worried about Carlotta and feels that it is his job to find her and is happy that Richard loyally offers to help him search the neighborhood.

In the first book of her Carver Chronicles series, Dog Days: The Carver Chronicles, Book One (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2013), Karen English's Gavin is a typical third grader, trying to thread his way through the social situation in a new school, complete with bossy girl Deja and her best friend Nikki, and the overgrown Harper, who knows Gavin saw him shoplifting and is looking for a chance to catch him alone, and a bunch of other kids who don't yet see Gavin as a good friend. Gavin is an likable character and English's setting and artist Laura Freeman's many humorous illustrations promise plenty of possibilities for future adventures on the school and home front for young readers, especially boys, looking to move up to beginning chapter books. Karen English, who has already set the scene for this new series in her popular Nikki and Deja books, has shown the writing chops for this genre and has made a promising start in this first book in her new series.

Another proven series for boys ready to move on to easy chapter reading is Andrew Clements' funny, poignant and altogether estimable Jake Drake books.

X-Dog Martha: Secret Agent Dog (Martha Speaks) by Susan Meddaugh and Jamie White

UH-OH! I'd been caught red-pawed.

I fled the scene. I didn't stop running until I'd reached the chief's office. (Do two-legged spies run this much? Where's my fancy car with the windows open and the top down?) I delivered K9-001's message.

"November 29-X?" the Chief repeated.

"That's right. He said it was a code."

"It certainly is, Martha! The case is cracked." The Chief shook my paw.

"Congratulations, Martha! You saved the soup!"

Martha loves a mystery, and when she is summoned by a mysterious pair in dark suits, dark glasses, and a dark limousine, she is delighted to be told that because of her special abilities, she has been chosen by spymaster The Chief to go undercover as a guard dog in the Granny's Soup headquarters. Rumors are circulating that a nefarious band of industrial spies are plotting to get their hands on Granny's secret alphabet soup formula. Martha is on board with the force right away: after all, she's always dreamed of the glamorous life of a secret agent, and besides, she needs that soup daily to keep on talking.

On the job as K9-002, Martha is disappointed that the role doesn't come with a tuxedo, dark glasses, and toilet water martinis, but she willingly agrees to work with the force's K9-001, guard dog Ruff, a rugged Rottweiler already in place at the factory. On her first night of surveillance, Martha, playing a friendly nighttime watchdog, observes the janitor picking the lock to Granny's office, where the secret formula is kept safe in the, um, safe, to which only Granny herself knows the combination. Certain that she has uncovered the undercover agent, Martha and Ruff take the news to Granny, and watch as she rushes to open the safe and make sure her formula is still there.

It is, and when Ruff tells Martha a secret code to capture the crook (the bilingual Martha speaks dog, remember?), she rushes to report it to The Chief. Mission accomplished. Case closed, thanks to souper-dog Martha, she thinks.

But no. Martha soon learns that The Chief was an impostor who played upon her desire to be a secret agent. Ruff, Agent K9-001, was actually part of the mastermind's plot. He observed the combination Granny's safe (which Martha's owner Helen quickly decodes as 11-29-10) and used Martha's ability to translate it into human talk to get it to The Chief, who then knew all he needed to rip off the recipe and end Granny's Soup's preeminence as Numero Uno in the soup biz.

Martha mopes for a minute or two, but then decides it's up to her to save Granny's Soup and keep herself in place as the world's only talking dog, even if it requires really going undercover, disguising herself as a pink poodle and infiltrating The Chief's operation. But this time, it's not Martha's linguistic skills or becoming a master of disguise that save the day--it's her good old doggy sense of smell that finally uncovers the master criminal and saves the soup.

In their forth-coming-in-February beginning chapter entry, Martha Speaks: Secret Agent Dog (Chapter Book) (Houghton Mifflin, 2012), Susan Meddaugh and collaborator Jamie White put their mystery-solving mutt through her paces in a comic little volume in which Martha again cur-tails the crooks and saves the world for talking dogs. Fans of the hit PBS show and Meddaugh's series of picture books and I-Can-Read Martha Speaks stories will love Martha as souper-spy, and the appended glossary and secret agent activities will undercover additional vocabulary enrichment opportunities as they create their own secret code messages and become "masters of disguise."

Stink Far Out: Stink: Solar System Superhero by Megan McDonald

Flub! Flop! Flunk!

Stink Moody had to take a test.

A SCIENCE TEST. A SOLAR SYSTEM test! He had to learn all the planets--by tomorrow!

Stink went to find his big sister. He sure hoped Judy wasn't in a mood.

If Judy was in a mood, Stink hoped it was a help-you-little-brother-study-for-his-test mood.

No sweat for Stink. Judy gives him the keyword: PIZZA! "My Very Eccentric Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas," she explains. Each word begins with the first letter of the planets in order outward from the sun, from Mercury to Pluto. "It's a mnemonic device," Dad adds. Stink knows he's going to ace that test!

But when he gets his test paper back, there's a big red X right next to Pluto, while his know-it-all classmate Riley Rottenberger smirks "It's a dwarf planet. Everybody know Pluto isn't a planet anymore," she insists, pointing to her Space Camp t-shirt which says "PLUTO IS DEAD."

To head off a free-for-all argument over the status of Pluto, Stink's teacher takes a vote to see how many classmates are Pluto fans. When a sizable number raise their hands, she wisely declares that there will be a presentation by both camps. Riley, of course, heads the the KPBs (Kick Plutos (er) Behind) team and Stink leads Captain Pluto and the Underdogs. Stink researches the criteria for planetdom and with his "Make Your Own Bumper Sticker" kit, prints out a bunch of magnetic "Honk If You Love Pluto" signs, even affixing one to his teacher's little blue Mini's bumper. Stink's presentation carries the vote, and even Riley admits to feeling a little sorry for poor Pluto, kicked out of his group.

"Any friend of Pluto's is a friend of mine!" Stink says.

There's no better way to introduce a primary science unit on the solar system than with a reading of Megan McDonald's newest addition to the Stink Moody series, Stink: Solar System Superhero (Book #5) (Candlewick, 2010). Younger brother Stink is the perfect foil to moody Judy, ever ebullient and ready to throw himself into any venture headlong, even if it takes him to the darkest reaches of outer space where the dwarf planets dwell. Peter Reynolds' clever line drawings are virtually inseparable from this wonderful series of beginning chapter fiction, and this Stink story is far-out fun.

Case of the Purloined Eggs: April Adventure by Ron Roy

Brian sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Hey, what's this?" he asked. He held up a blue plastic egg. "It was on my pillow!"

"My egg had a note inside!" Bradley said, showing his egg.

"We all have notes!" Lucy said. "Mine says, GO WHERE A ROSE GROWS. SIGNED, THE SHADOW."

Nate crawled out of his sleeping bag. "Mine says, THERE YOU WILL FIND DIRECTIONS TO THE TREASURE. It's signed THE SHADOW, too!"

"Cool," Lucy said. "I love treasure hunts! But who's the Shadow?"

The second-grade siblings of those intrepid detectives made famous in Ron Roy's top-selling A to Z Mysteries, love a mystery, too, and when they head to the rose garden in the park downtown, they have no trouble finding the hidden plastic eggs. But one note inside tells them to find the golden eggs to claim their prize, but there are no golden eggs to be found. It's a mystery, and the young sleuths soon rise to the challenge.

A bit of traditional gumshoe legwork leads them to heir neighbor Mr. Pocket, who suggests that they concentrate on the nesting swans in the park. With that piece of information the four kids run back to the pond, where they find that the swans are not the least bit interested in letting them look for golden eggs in their nests. But like their super-sleuth siblings, these young detectives soon figure out what to do next, an investigation which also leads to an ecological adventure.

Young independent readers who are not quite ready for author Roy's popular A to Z detectives, will be glad to see his latest entry into the beginning chapter genre, Calendar Mysteries #4: April Adventure (A Stepping Stone Book(TM)), this one written in a very accessible Grade 1.8 reading level. With his illustrator John Steven Gurney's appealing illustrations, full- and half-page, throughout, this book boasts nine chapters and a real big-kid look for those just taking their first steps into reading an extended story on their own. Roy's Calendar Mysteries are a boon to the youngest beginning chapter readers with manageable vocabulary, familiar neighborhood settings, and appealing young characters who think for themselves.

Great George's Ghost! The Ghost Who Haunted the Capitol by Steve Brezenoff

"Come on, Sam," I said. "We're not superheroes or something. We're just going on a class trip."

"Yeah," Cat added. "it's not like there's always a major crime wave wherever we go on a class trip."

Gum frowned. "Yeah there is," he said.

"Yeah, said Sam. "Name one trip we've been on that didn't involve us busting some crook or scoundrel or vandal or punk?"

Sam was right. For us, field trips meant fighting crime.

Egg (Edward G. Garrison) and his sixth-grade buddies expect to see the usual sights on their field trip to Washington, D.C--the Capitol, the Washington Monument--but they really don't expect to see the ghost of George Washington!

It all begins at Union Station. The kids are just piling off their train when the crowd begins to run and scream that they are seeing a ghost--the ghost of our first president. The scene is chaos, Some sort of flyers litter the grand lobby and people are running away from the ghost, toward the ghost, and every direction in between. Egg is disappointed that the mysterious figure is gone before he can snap a photo with his trusty camera. But at the hotel, there's another appearance of the phantasm, suddenly appearing in Sam and Cat's room. But this time Egg is there with his always at-hand camera, and he catches their pesky classmate, Anton Gutman, in the act. But how could Anton have managed to impersonate George's ghost at the station?

And the next day, as the kids make the rounds, there are whispers about the ghost everywhere they go, and all the tourists seem to have suddenly acquired fancy new cameras to try to catch a telltale snapshot of Washington's spirit. At the Washington Monument, Egg finally manages to get his own shots of the mystery phantasm, but the figure of the supposed ghost appears only as a bright blur. Even the down-to-earth Gum is beginning to believe in ghosts.

But Egg is suspicious. It's an interesting coincidence that those flyers scattered all over Union Station were advertising a big weekend sale on cameras at Washington's Photographs just at the time when the photo op of the century was making cameo appearances all around the nation's capital. Egg knows why the ghost of George is walking. Now all he has to do is explain what--or who--the presidential ghost really is.

Steve Brezenoff's The Ghost Who Haunted the Capitol (Field Trip Mysteries) (Stone Arch Books, 2011) has those gumshoes of the school bus on the job in a brand-new installment of his beginning chapter book series, Field Trip Mysteries. C. B. Canga's classy full-color illustrations catch the local color to add much in the way of pizazz to the design of this appealing group of young sleuth mystery tales that should be just right for readers who have ripped through Ron Roy's The A to Z Mysteries (for more D.C. suspense, see Roy's White House White-Out (A to Z Mysteries Super Edition, No. 3.) Or, to catch the current zombie wave, pair the Field Trip sleuths' The Zombie That Visited New Orleans (Field Trip Mysteries) with Ron Roy's The Zombie Zone (A to Z Mysteries) for a lot of detective fun way down yonder in New Orleans.

Squeals on Wheels: Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express by Megan McDonald

Stink Moody a guinea pig whisperer? Judy Moody's irrepressible little brother is many things, but who knew he had a special way with guinea pigs?

But when Stink and his friends Webster and Sophie find three of the little rodents in their "Great Wall of Cereal Boxes" construction, they soon learn that they are escapees from Ms. Birdwhistle's surplus guinea pig population at Fur and Fangs Pet Shop. In fact, there are 101 of the little squealers there, and after the three friends help Ms. B. corral them again in their cages, she confesses that she needs help finding homes for these fluffy little critters fast!

Stink has already fallen in love with one of the escapees, whom he names Astro, but when he hints that he would like to keep him, sister Judy points out that a guinea pig would not exactly be a compatible pet with their cat Mouse. So he and his buddies throw themselves into the guinea pig adoption project with characteristic energy. They industriously scrub down the inside of Ms. Birdwhistle's old camper van, arrange cages inside, and paint the outside to resemble a giant guinea pig, complete with blue eyes like Astro's, fluffy whiskers, moons, stars and rainbows, and a catchy name.

"It's a traveling guinea pig palace," said Sophie.

"A piggy parade," said Webster.

"Squeals on Wheels!" said Stink.

In the piggymobile Ms. Birdwhistle and the three friends set off on a pig placement project, first to the local mall, and then on The Great Guinea Pig Giveaway Tour, all the way to Virginia Beach, where a guinea pig rescue group promises to take some of the little squeakers off their hands. Along the way, the kids stop at all the tourist attractions--Bull Run Castle, where bunch of young wizards and witches at a Harry Potter party take six, the Reston Zoo, where a few more find homes, Norfolk's sudsy city fountain, where ten squeaky clean pigs find owners, and the Beatles Museum at the beach, where guinea pigs John, Paul, George, and Ringo find families among the mop-top fans. At last they arrive at the rescue headquarters, where Stink says a sad goodbye to the blue-eyed Astro.

Still missing his favorite, Stink returns home, only to find that his cat Mouse has a strange fascination with his backpack. Inside he finds a squeaky stowaway--Astro!--and wonder of wonders, it's love at first sight between Mouse and the little guinea pig. Soon there's a purring contest underway between guinea pig and Stink's pet, and the Moody household finds it has another furry friend in residence.

Megan McDonald's Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express (Book #4) is but the latest in the beginning chapter adventures of Stink Moody, including Stink (Book #1): The Incredible Shrinking Kid, Stink and the Incredible Super-Galactic Jawbreaker (Book #2), Stink and the World's Worst Super-Stinky Sneakers (Book #3), Judy Moody & Stink: The Holly Joliday, and Judy Moody & Stink: The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Treasure Hunt, all illustrated in the inimitable comic style of Peter H. Reynolds, making this popular series serious boy reader bait.

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!

Bridging the Gap IX: Annabel the Actress by Ellen Conford

To carry the reader through a book limited to 6000 words and controlled vocabulary, beginning chapter books need a strong central character whose predilections carry him or her into quickly unfolding action. Veteran author Ellen Conford's Annabel the Actress series is no exception. Annabel wants to be an actress, a star of stage and screen (or at least soap opera), and she'll audition anywhere, costume herself wildly, and take any part toward that objective. "No Part Too Big or Too Small!" is her motto.

In the the series debut, Annabel the Actress Starring in Gorilla My Dreams, Annabel gets her first gig as a birthday party gorilla. Annabel's friend Maggie, designer wannabe, whips up a costume from the furry zip-out lining of an old coat, and Annabel borrows a Halloween gorilla mask. The costume isn't too convincing, and Annabel is way too short for a gorilla, but she diligently rehearses (even "grooming" her father while he tries to work at his computer) and vows to overcome her size challenge by "playing tall." After drawing on her acting skills to foil the seizure of her gorilla mask by her nemesis Lowell Boxer, Annabel manages to wow the five-year-olds and becomes the star of the birthday party.

Actress Annabel moves on to land a role in a community drama in which she shares the stage (successfully, after some tussles) with a large, drooling dog and suffers "costume malfunction," and heckling by her arch enemy Lowell Boxer, in Annabel the Actress Starring in Hound of the Barkervilles.

In the third book of the series, Annabel the Actress Starring in Just a Little Extra, Annabel ad libs a fainting scene to get herself an extra's role in a scary movie being filmed in her hometown. Annabel's film debut is not all she hoped for, but her terrified scream is a real hit with the filmmaker.

Conford's newest book, Annabel the Actress Starring in Camping It Up, finds Annabel at a summer drama camp, playing a bit part under the direction of a former horror movie star. Although she gets to use her trademark scream, Annabel's audition for the starring female role falls short, but when the camp mascot snake makes an impromptu appearance onstage during opening night, Annabel's quick improvisation saves the performance.

With Accelerated Reader grade levels between 2.9 and 3.4, the Annabel the Actress series is perfect for the grade 1-3 reader. With expressive drawings by Renee Andriani generously sprinkled throughout the text, this series, with its appealing, funny, and single-minded heroine, takes its place in the limelight, along with Conford's earlier beginning chapter books, the Jenny Archer series, at the top of the marquee for beginning chapter book readers.

"Some Pig!" Mercy Watson Collars Criminal!

Never hamper a hungry hog (or a peckish porcine, or a pig pining for toast), especially in the case of Mercy Watson.

Mercy is the preternaturally jolly pig who lives with her proud family, the Watsons, and loves nothing more than buttered toast. In Mercy Kate DiCamillo has another inimitable character. Known for her Newbery books Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, and the spiritually moving The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, DiCamillo has proven that she can also write for the beginning chapter book reader with style and humor.

In the first of the trilogy, Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride,the Watsons take their pride-and-joy pig for a afternoon drive. When one of their eccentric old-maid neighbors, Baby Lincoln, is found stowed away in the back seat, Mercy takes advantage of the flap to commandeer the wheel of the pink-finned Caddy convertible and leads a pursuing policeman a merry chase. All's well that ends with buttered toast, however, and even Baby's crotchety sister Eugenia shares in the feast, although she is still of the opinion that "pigs should not live with people."

In the second book, Mercy Watson to the Rescue a lonely Mercy decides to bed down with the Watsons, causing a slight collapse of the second story flooring. Such a pending emergency necessarily calls for--what else?--buttered toast, so Mercy dashes next door to the Lincoln sisters to see if they might be making a midnight snack. After a bit of a kerfoofle with the Lincoln sisters, the long-suffering firemen arrive and rescue the Watsons, just in time for a late-night banquet of buttered toast.

Camillo's newest pig saga is Mercy Watson Fights Crime, in which Mercy awakes to a living nightmare. (Oh, no! Someone is stealing the toaster!) Mercy apprehends the thief, cowboy wannabee Leroy Tinker, purloining the appliances. When Leroy tries to tiptoe out, he trips and finds himself astride Mercy and riding her like a bucking bronco, complete with Yippie-i-ohs loud enough to wake be-curlered Eugenia Lincoln and her sister Baby next door. Again the long-suffering policeman and firemen arrive to find Mercy perching ponderously on the perp, happily eating his Butter Barrel candy. "This is an interesting job, isn't it?" says fireman Ned.

The evening ends with the usual group (and the suspect) assembling once again in the Watsons vintage 1950's kitchen,the toaster restored to the countertop, for a bracing taste of toast. "Why, everyone needs toast," says Mrs. Watson.

The gouache illustrations by Chris Van Dusen cheerily recreate the fifties' ambience, and the reading levels (Accelerated Reader 2.6 and 2.7) put these books in perfect range for the emergent chapter reader. Somehow I feel we may see more of Mercy Watson and buttered toast from Kate DiCamillo.