School Days: Hooray for Reading Day by Margery Cuylar

Jessica was a worrier. She worried all the time.

But in first grade she had a big worry. Reading.

Jessica loves books, but when she tries to read aloud from the class reader Hot Pot, she stutters embarrassingly. At one point, she is so eager to get her part over with that she blurts out "The p-p-pot was snot," providing her class with a good giggle at her expense.

When her teacher Mr. Martin announces that the class will host a Reading Theatre Day for their parents to showcase their new skills, the day looms ahead of Jessica like the Day of Doom. To add to her worries, Mr. Martin says everyone must wear a costume. Jessica is paralyzed by her fear that she will embarrass herself and let her parents down on the big day.

"What's wrong," asked Mom when Jessica is too worried to eat her dinner.

"Everything!" said Jessica.

"Go on," said Dad. "Tell us."

And together they come up with a Plan. Jessica will practice reading out loud, not just to her parents, but to her dog Wiggles, who is always pleased with her efforts. Her sister and brother even come up with a costume of sorts which makes Jessica feel comforted and safe. Jessica feels better when her mother tells her that she had trouble at the beginning of first grade but eventually became the best reader in the class.

Reassured, Jessica reads her lines perfectly on the day of the Reading Theatre, costumed in her favorite blanket, along with Anita, dressed as the pot, and Leslie as the baker who heats the pot. The Reading Day is a roaring success with the audience of proud parents, and that night Jessica reads two bedtime stories out loud to her dog Wiggles.

As always, Cuyler's text for Hooray for Reading Day! (Jessica Worries) is simple but believable as she describes the thought processes of a born worrywart. Arthur Howard's nuanced illustrations are softer and lighter than his usual broad comic style, but he slips in a sly bit of illustrator's humor which even beginning readers will appreciate. The back cover of Hot Pot features this "publisher's blurb:"

LOOK FOR THESE OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES!

ODD COD
BOLD MOLD
FAT CAT
NICE MICE

AND COMING SOON--SNAIL MAIL!

The Adventures of an Artist! Here Comes Lolo by Niki Daly

Friday was always the day of the Star Awards.

Lolo has a red star for neat writing, and a blue star for clean hands, but she is a girl with higher aspirations. She hopes today will be the day she gets the Gold Star for reading. She finds it hard to concentrate all day, but at the end of the day at "Free Time," she loses track of time, reading book after book and adding them to her list. Suddenly it's Awards Time, and Mrs. McKenzie praises her for reading so many books and puts a Gold Star on her forehead!

Lolo is so proud that she runs all the way home, excited to show off her Gold Star to Mama and Grandma Gogo.

But when she gets home and points proudly to her forehead, there's nothing there!

Gogo and Lolo go back to look for it, but at the stall where she stopped for a donut, the owner's little girl Sharifa is wearing it on her forehead and protests so loudly that Lolo lets her keep the star.

Mama gives Lolo a kiss for being such an understanding big girl, and at bedtime Gogo has a hair clip with a big golden star for Lolo.

Lola's love for art pays off the next week when her friend Makalima buys the hat Lolo wanted, but suddenly agrees to swap the real hat for a portrait of her wearing the hat painted by Lolo. And when Lolo finds a lost engagement ring, she designs a standout Lost and Found poster, and a young woman named Belinda  calls with the description of her lost ring, and gratefully invites Lolo to come to her art classes every Saturday for free. She even invites Lolo, Mama, and Gogo to her wedding.

And when Lolo spots a mistreated and starving old dog tied in a neighbor's backyard, Belinda notifies Animal Rescue to take the dog to the shelter. She soon adopts the dog and names her "Hope," and brings her every Saturday morning to her art class.

And Hope always goes to Lolo first.

Niki Daly's upbeat beginning chapter book about budding artist Lolo, Here Comes Lolo (LOLO (1)) (Catalyst Press, 2019) introduces an aspiring and artistic young protagonist who makes good things happen around her. Lolo puts her art skills to work to help herself and others, and this first chapter book about the enterprising Lolo earns a gold star for author-illustrator Daly. Daly's second book about Lolo is Hooray for Lolo (Lolo (2))

Booked! The Jellybeans and the Big Book Bonanza by Laura Numeroff and Nate Evans

Anna loved to read.

She read while grocery shopping. She read while jumping rope. She read while taking a bubble bath.

At school homework was assigned. They had to go to the library, read a book about something they loved and write a report on it. The class was going to have a Book Bonanza!

Anna is thrilled to share her love of the library with her best friends from ballet--Emily, Nicole, and Bitsy--but the three friends are dubious.

"I'd rather be dancing," said Emily.

"I wish I was playing soccer," Nicole added.

"When can I go paint?" Bitsy asked.

Anna and her friends, who named themselves the Jellybeans because, despite their differences, they seem to belong together, set off for the local library. The others are still reluctant readers, but Anna has faith that her librarian, Ms. Beasley-Buzzer, can come through. And indeed she does the Dewey Decimal System with distinction, and in no time Emily is learning all about le danse, Nicole is kicking back with a soccer book, and Bitsy is mastering the Old Masters. With their noses now in books, Ms. Beasley-Buzzer even has time to pull her latest fairy tale anthology for the fantasy-loving Anna.

Book Bonanza Day is a big success, with the Jellybeans, front and center, sharing the limelight for their diverse book reports. To celebrate, of course, the four friends repair to Petunia's Sweet Shop for their favorite treat, all different colored and all equally delicious.

Laura Numeroff, creator of the If You Give a Mouse series, and her co-author Nate Evans have added a second book to their initial collaboration, The Jellybeans and the Big Dance [JELLYBEANS & THE BIG DANCE], In Lynn Munsinger's artistic hands, the illustrations, done in soft springtime pastels, depict the four main characters as individuals, all as appealing yet diverse as their club's namesake. A great lead-in to a Children's Book Week, a library field trip, or big classroom read-in day, The Jellybeans and the Big Book Bonanza (Abrams, 2010) shows that opposites attract--in friendship and in literature as well as confections.

For another Book Week tie-in for reluctant readers, see Margery Cuyler's Hooray for Reading Day! (Jessica Worries) (Simon & Schuster), reviewed here.

Whose Boo Is Whose? Hooray for Halloween Curious George

ONE DAY CURIOUS GEORGE AND HIS FRIEND THE MAN WITH THE YELLOW HAT WERE ON THEIR WAY TO A PARTY AT MRS. GRAY'S HOUSE.

The house is a bit spooky--tall and dark, with pointy gables. And the door is opened by... a witch! And inside George catches a glimpse of a mysterious mummy!

But behind her witchy mask, Mrs. Gray is quite jolly.

DON'T BE AFRAID, GEORGE.

DID I FORGET TO TELL YOU THIS IS A COSTUME PARTY?

Kind Mrs. Gray sends George upstairs, where she says he can pick something to wear from a trunk full old costumes. George is excited. He finds cowboy duds, complete with lasso and cowboy hat, and tries to see what he looks like in the Mrs. Gray's bureau mirror, but he's too short to see himself.

Wait! He climbs up on her bed and starts to jump up and down until he bounces high enough to see his reflection. But, oh, no! He bounces too high and lands on the bedside table--CRASH! and slides off, tangling himself in the little white tablecloth.

"WAS THAT A GHOST?" SOMEONE DOWNSTAIRS SHOUTS.

A ghost? George is scared. He takes the fast way down the stairs--WHOOSH! sliding down the banister rail, tablecloth and all. One of the guests sees him, wrapped in white, and screams. YIKES!

"IT IS A GHOST!"

No. It's just a naughty little monkey! The party goers soon see it's only George under there, dressed as a Wild West buckaroo, and the party is saved, in Margaret Weston's Hooray for Halloween, Curious George (Houghton Mifflin Clarion), with bobbing for apples and jack-o' lanterns, and a contest to choose the best costume. George wins two prizes, one for each of his costumes, and a good time is had by all.

This light-hearted look at scary get-ups is best for reading to the youngest would-be Halloween celebrants who often find the concept of people costumed as scary vampires and ghosts a little off-putting when it comes time to venture out on Halloween. As usual, Curious George again shows them the way in this easy-going story which even doubles as an easy reader for primary graders.

And . . . there's a treat for all inside--Halloween stickers, lots of them, to decorate handmade crafts and cards!

BEWARE OF THE HAMSTER! Ferocious Fluffity by Erica Perl

Mr. Drake's class has a new pet.She's tiny and cute; she looks so sweet! They love her fluff and her neat little feet. But Mr. Drake has an important pet point to make.

"Look, don't touch!
She's too little. It's too much!

Though the children nodded YES,
Did they mean it? Take a guess.

The kids in Room 2-D all secretly plan to get their hands on Fluffity at the first opportunity.

And then fate steps in. Mr. Drake sleeps late. The unsupervised class shouts HOORAY! Today is the day for Fluffity's first hands-on experience!

No one's sure who held her first.
Things got bad. Then things got worse.

She was tiny, she was cute.
She was also quite a brute!

Bert is the first to be bit, but when he yells, (Yee-OUCH!), another student catches Fluffity and gets chomped. The hamster goes from hand to hand, with the same results, from Zonder and Zuna to both Kevin K and Kevin B. Fluffity takes it on the lam down the hall, with Nathan getting the worst of the capture effort.

She bit "Dathan" on his "dose."

She bit Perrie, Pam and Paul.
She bit them, bit them, bit them all.

As the kids from Room 2-D take refuge in the library from their mighty-bitey mite, Mr. Drake rushes in, just in time to get bit on the ankle. It's not exactly the sharing and shared experience he had in mind for their first classroom pet.

All's well at last, as Mr. D. calms Room 2-D and restores Fluffity to her hamster habitat, explaining that hamsters have to be handled tactically until they settle in and suggests letting their pet release some of her nervous energy on her exercise wheel before approaching her again. And then he surprises the class with their second classroom pet--Jake the Snake. The kids are thrilled, but Fluffity finds that she is NOT.

Lila Perl's Ferocious Fluffity: A Mighty Bite-y Class Pet (Abrams Books, 2016) features her funny couplets in this witty tale of their tiny terror, with notable children's artist Henry Cole taking over the visual storytelling with his usual hilarious illustrations, from the fearful Fluffity to the well-individualized kids in the class and the mega-cool Mr. Drake. Cole even manages to put in a plug for books and reading in the bulletin boards posted in the classroom, hall, and particularly the apropos BOOKS YOU CAN SINK YOUR TEETH INTO! in the library. A perfect cautionary tale for kids (and teachers) contemplating a new class pet!

Lila Perl and Henry Cole are the co-creators of the noted giggle-fest pair, Chicken Butt and Chicken Butt's Back! (See reviews here.)

What To Do? Just Read by Leri Degman

Where do you read? When do you read? Why do you read?

HOORAY! I know how to read on my own!
But sometimes I don't want to do it alone.

You can read on trains; you can read on planes!
You can read on the swings; you can read when it rains.

Sometimes it's boring to read just one way.
It gets so monotonous day after day!

What do you do when there's nothing to do? What to do when there's everything to do?

The lively little readers in Leri Degman's latest, Just Read! (Sterling Children's Book, 2019) read anything, anywhere, with whomever they are with. They read sheet music in a music store, they read secret codes. They read rhyming signs beside the highway, and they read about exotic animals on the subway. They read in the park as they slide down the slide; they read when the family goes out for a ride. Author Leri Degman's jaunty rhymes portray kids reading and what they imagine as they read, and artist Victoria Tentler-Krylev's vivid, bustling illustrations of kids reading everywhere and anywhere show the endless ways to do it. Just do it! Just read!