School Days: Marley: The Dog Who Ate My Homework created by John Grogan

Marley was waiting for Cassie to come home.

He'd been waiting all day to play fetch.

"Not now, Marley," Cassie said. "I have to work on my project for school."

Ignoring the hopeful Marley with his entire collection of balls assembled by the door, Cassie is intent on mission solar system model--with her thoughts solely on finding spherical objects to represent the sun and its eight planets. Dashing into the kitchen to tell her mother about the project, her gaze falls on the full fruit bowl on the table. A big grapefruit, apples, oranges.... perfect!

Soon Cassie has built her model from string, straws, and nine assorted sizes of fruit, and hangs it from the dining room chandelier to keep it out of harm's way until morning. Marley thinks his time to play ball has come at last.

"Sorry, Marley! Now I need to write my report on the planets and the sun!" said Cassie, as she hurries off to her desk.

Poor Marley. There's no time for playing fetch that night, and when Cassie and the family finally go to bed, Marley sadly heads for his own bed, too. But no sooner has he curled up than he hears an intriguing thump from the next room.

Dashing into the dining room, Marley sees what made the sound. The big grapefruit which was playing the role of the sun has fallen. The solar system's balance is out of whack and it is spinning crazily. Marley knows it's his job to help Cassie out.

"Oh, no! If I take a bite of this one," Marley thought, "the balls will line up again."

Marley bites into one of the orange balls. It was SO sweet!"

Young readers will know exactly where this story is going, and of course when Cassie comes downstairs to pack up her project the next morning, there are no intact planets left, and Marley has a telltale orange juice stain on his ruff. Where can Cassie find enough new spheres to replace her "planets?" Guess who can show her just the balls to rebuild her model in a jiffy?

Continuing the adventures of John Grogan's irrepressible Marley, Harper's illustrious I-Can-Read series has a new school-time title, Marley: The Dog Who Ate My Homework (I Can Read Book 2) (Harper, 2012) just in time for back-to-school reading for early readers. Caitlin Birch's well-paced, controlled vocabulary text makes for easy reading for primary students, and Rick Whipple does a jolly job of illustrating the now-famous members of the Grogan family and their pesky pooch.

Herding Chickens: Marley: Not A Peep! by John Grogan and Susan Hill

"Marley, we're home!" Cassie said.

"We hatched chicks at school and I got to bring them home for the weekend!"

Cassie has hit the primary school jackpot. She has been chosen by her teacher as the responsible student designated to take care of the chicks over the weekend.

Cassie's teacher has taught her the drill, too. Carefully, she fills the chick's water dispenser inside their roomy cage and loads the feeder with chick food. So far, so good. Everything is shipshape, and the chicks are eating and peeping happily.

But then Cassie and her mom make their mistake. They set off for weekend activities, blithely leaving Marley behind with the supposedly secure chicks.

"I have a playdate," Cassie said. "You're in charge while I'm gone."

Marley looked at the chicks. He looked at Cassie. "WOOF!" he said.

But nobody looked at the latch on the cage.

Marley soon is curled up for a nap in the living room, but his lovely long snooze is abruptly interrupted.

"CHEEP!!"

A single black chick seems to have escaped. Then, suddenly, the room is filled with chicks, cheeping, hopping, pecking, even climbing all over Marley.

At first this impromptu playdate is exciting. Marley enjoys being the chicks' playground as they hop all over him and explore the furniture. But eventually the pup remembers Cassie's words. These chicks aren't supposed to be wandering all over the house, are they?

Marley knows this can't be good. He tries to herd the chicks back into their cage before Cassie comes back. He knows that somehow, he will be the one who gets the blame for the breakout. But the latch seems to be broken, and as soon as he gets one inside, the peeper pops right back out. Then he hears the car drive up to the house.

It looks like everyone's favorite golden Lab malefactor is caught red-pawed in the midst of mischief again, in Marley: Not a Peep! (I Can Read Book 2) (Harper, 2012), the latest in Harper's venerable I-Can-Read series. Pair this one with Marley: The Dog Who Cried Woof[ MARLEY: THE DOG WHO CRIED WOOF ] by Grogan, John (Author) Oct-11-11[ Paperback ] for a double-dog duo of easy readers.

Boo! Martha Speaks: Haunted House by Susan Meddaugh

Martha is helping out at the flower shop.

"Can you deliver these flowers?" Mom asked.

"Of course," Martha replies. "Where to?"

"This says 936 Elm Street, but nobody lives there," Mom frowns. "As kids we thought that house was haunted."

"Like with ghosts?" Martha wonders.

Despite Mom's reassurances that the the house must have new owners, Martha sets off on the errand with a bit of trepidation. The house does have a Gothic look about it, and the windows are all dark. "If I were a ghost," Martha muses, "I'd live here."

Martha scratches politely on the door. No one comes, but the door swings open creakily...to reveal a dark and dusty interior with formless white shapes barely visible inside. No one responds to Martha's tentative hello. Martha ventures a little further inside the gloomy interior and runs right into a chair, draped in a musty sheet. Startled, Martha tries to pull away and the chair cover settles like a shroud over her form.

The reader probably can guess where this one is going. Of course, the new owners, the Parkingtons, are trying to make the best of moving in without electricity, and when they see a mysterious white shape writhing and twisting in their already spooky living room..., well, now they are worried about ghosts, too. It's a merry, slightly scary mixup as Martha flees, without the basket of flowers, back to the flower shop where Helen and friend T.D. volunteer to go back into the haunted house to retrieve the misplaced flowers. Soon it is Helen's turn to be rescued from strange goings-on inside by the ever resourceful Martha.

Adapted from an episode on PBS' popular Martha program based on Susan Meddaugh's delightful Martha Speaks series, Martha Speaks: Haunted House (Reader) (Houghton-Mifflin, 2010) provides light Halloween fare for the beginning Level 2 reader. Having acquired speech and literacy from her daily dose of (what else) alphabet soup, Martha is the perfect advocate for reading, deftly working vocabulary and phonic lessons seamlessly and humorously into every book and television episode. Appended is some sticker fun and Martha's usual word play page to reinforce vocabulary covered in the book.

Martha is truly the young reader's best friend. Like Jane O'Connor's spin-off Fancy Nancy I-Can-Read series, this talking dog helps kids bone up on reading fundamentals and have great fun in the process. Long live Martha!

Far Out! Strike Three, Marley! by Ellen Beier and John Grogan

It was spring, and Cassie was going to her first baseball game.

"Come on, Marley!" said Daddy. "You can come, too!"

Daddy told Cassie the rules.

"If the batter misses the ball, it's called a strike. Three strikes and you're out."

Daddy looked around at Marley. "Your rules are simple," he told him.

"SIT. STAY. GOT IT?"

"RUFFFF!" Marley barked.

Gradually Cassie gets the hang of the rules of baseball and into the spirit of the game. Although he gets his rules, though, Marley finds it hard to stay with them. When a batter finally makes contact with the ball and hits it into the outfield, Marley has had enough of his rules.

"They're playing FETCH! That's my favorite game!" thought Marley. I want to play, too."

But when Marley joins the game, it's time out for the giggling players. Marley fields the ball and starts back toward the diamond, stopping to pick up second base, have a tug of war over a bat, "steal' home plate, and find a nice strip of conveniently soft, fresh dirt around the plate in which to bury the ball.

The pitcher laughed. "Sometimes I want to bury the ball, too."

Even the umpire forgets to call a foul when Marley sits down and offers him his paw. It's not exactly what Cassie expected from her first baseball game, but it surely is exciting!

"We're glad you're on OUR team, Marley," says Cassie.

There's never a dull moment when Marley is on your team, and in Marley: Strike Three, Marley! (I Can Read Book 2) (Harper, 2010) Marley is back on Harper's all-star I-Can-Read team, with a baseball story that will help keep beginning readers' scores in the educational big leagues. With an easy format, giggles and chuckles, oodles of pictures of the precocious pup Marley by illustrator Ellen Beier, and baseball-related vocabulary in Susan Hill's text, rookie readers are all set for their first season with the famous all-star and best-selling Marley.