Easy to read novels (known in many library systems as ERs) are those early chapters for kids in roughly grade 2-3 that still include some illustration and are shorter in length and larger in type size, but a definite move into real novels. Series abound in this area, and are favoured by many kids for their comfort level and familiarity, a real help when learning to read longer books. These books are also often set in school, and feature stories about friends, as well as adventures and mysteries, to start making it interesting.
There also, it must be said, a plethora of titles aimed at young girls. There are the classic Ramona books, of course, favourites that are dear to my heart, and the first and best model for these. There are the Clementine books, my modern favourite. And then there are the Judy Moody books, and those about the funny but obnoxiously precocious Junie B Jones. Lots of bright, sassy young things, to be sure. But I am also quite fond of this pair of friends, who get into silly things and are also about friendship, and are less over the top in their clever schemes. I think I might like these kids…
Ivy + Bean: No News is Good News
by Annie Barrows
Chronicle Books
ISBN: 978 0 8118 6693 4
In the 8th book in the series, Ivy + Bean are suffering from a desperate desire to get little balls of cheese in their lunches – not for the cheese, but for the red wax that all their friends seem to have endless fun with. The two of them covet that wax, but their mothers refuse to buy them the expensive little cheeses, and they decide they are clearly going to have to take matters into their own hands and find the money to buy some themselves. Bean’s dad has in idea, having once written a neighbourhood newspaper himself as a kid…
You can see where this is going, right? It’s not a new plot, to be sure, the spying on neighbours and making up stories that get everyone upset, but it’s done at a nice level here. The stories are not too mean or scandalous, the consequences not too grave, but the point is made. In the end, the girls get their cheese, er, wax, and get away from the planned retaliation of the neighbour kids, but overhear enough of that conversation to understand their impact.
With a fun, light read, relateable girls that could be your child’s classmates, a little humour, and a satisfying ending, this is a great read for fans of the series or those new to it. Myself, I am planning to start my girl 7 at book 1, since I like these quite a lot.