Fly Guy Presents: Snakes by Tedd Arnold. Fly Guy Presents series. Scholastic Reader Level 2. 32 p. Scholastic Inc., January, 2016. 9780545851886. (Finished ppb copy courtesy of publisher)
Fly Guy and Buzz head to the Snake House during a field trip to the zoo. As if the high-interest topic of snakes needed any help, the tour guides, who are perennial favorites in many libraries and classrooms, certainly make the presentation interesting. Humor (courtesy of Fly Guy) resides side-by-side with easily digestible snake facts and spectacular full-color photos of a variety of snakes, some well-known, others, like the yellow eyelash viper, less so. Like most of the nonfiction easy readers in this series and others by the publisher, back matter is missing. But as a browsing book meant to encourage reading by making it enjoyable, Fly Guy Presents Snakes is a welcome addition.
The Cookie Fiasco by Dan Santat. 64 p. Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! Series. Disney Press, September, 2016. 9781484726365. (Review from purchased copy.)
Elephant and Piggie are BACK! Sorta. Mo Willems and Disney have launched an early reader imprint and Dan Santat is the author of its inaugural title. And what fun it is.
We all know that Elephant & Piggie love to read. Here, the front end-pages feature E & P sharing the book,The Cookie Fiasco and an introductory letter to "Dear Reader" from Mo Willems. Gerald wants to read a funny book and so does Piggie. On the first four pages, Gerald worries about how 2 people can read 1 book but Piggie is pragmatic. It is not until then that the Title Page for The Cookie Fiasco appears!
Hippo bellows, "Hey guys! It's COOKIE TIME!" and the fun starts in earnest because there are 3 cookies and 4 friends. As Squirrel, Croc and Monkey discuss possible iterations of sharing out the 3 cookies, Hippo gets more and more nervous. When Hippo gets nervous, she(?) he(?) breaks things, in this case the cookies. The other friends freak out as the three friends worry the cookies will be reduced to crumbs.
The Cookie Fiasco is a recipe for rollicking read aloud fun. I had the privilege and pleasure of listening to Dan Santat and friends read this aloud in Orlando at ALA Annual.
My listeners anticipated the end-pages, where they used their eagle eyes to spot Pigeon in a trice! I look forward to reading more in this early reader series.
