Early Chapter Books are difficult. It is a fine balance of the right number of illustrations, the amount of text on each page, and the length of the book. Early chapter books come in quite a variety of configurations so it is about finding the what works for your child. I hope that the selections this week will give you some variety and that you find a series that is a hit with your child.
This week my books are bit female focused, sorry boys. This was not intentional and I have a few good boy ones in the pipeline I will be blogging about in the coming weeks. But if you have a girl, whoopee! This is your week. Many of these books are continuations of a series, and they are just delightful. I so appreciate it when the second and third books are just as engaging as the first.
To see all my recommendations this week, please visit my website at www.onegreatbook.com
Title: The Gumazing Gum Girl!
Author: Rhode Monijo
Target: Grade 1-3
Series: This is the first book in a planned series
What this book is about:
Gabby Gomez loves bubble gum. She chews it non stop. But when some gets stuck in her hair overnight, her mother is at her wit’s end and tells Gabby no more gum! Gabby can’t seem to give it up cold turkey, so on the way to school she sneaks one last piece, but when the bubble pops over her entire body, strange changes begin to take place. She becomes Gum Girl and her feats of sticky stretchiness save the day. The only problem is that all the pride she feels over helping people doesn’t feel very good when she has lied to her parents about her gum chewing habit. Oh, and a bad guy is out to get her - Dun! Dun! Dun!
Why I love this book:
The bold comic book illustrations are so striking and fun, they will draw readers to this book immediately. The story also moves at a fast pace so that readers will quickly engage.
I like the fact that the author uses onomatopoeia very successfully in the story. And so you don’t think I am throwing big words around, it simply means words that imitate sounds like Nom! Nom! when she is chewing. I thought it added a lot of charm to the text.
Another lovely element to the book was the fact that Gabby is hispanic and spanish words are scattered throughout the narrative. It felt natural and even if you don’t know spanish, the context clues made the words very easy to figure out.
Who this book is for:
This is a great book for kids just making the leap to chapter books. Large pictures are present on most pages. Some pages have two or three paragraphs of text, but most have simply a sentence.
Final thoughts:
My only gripe with the book is that it ended quite abruptly and with a few loose ends in preparation for book two. While this will probably not bother many kids, for me, I wanted a little more resolution.
