A review by mschley
Charlie & Mouse: Book 1 (Classic Children's Book, Illustrated Books for Children), by Laurel Snyder
Award Winner: Theodor Seuss Geisel Award 2018
Published April 2017
This fun book of brotherhood is right on the boundary of an early chapter book. It contains four short stories about two brothers, Charlie and Mouse. In Lumps, they go about waking everyone up in the house and transforming them from lumps to family members. Then they all go the playground in The Party and invite their friends along to a neighborhood party. In Rocks, the brothers decide they would like to have some money and cook up a scheme to sell rocks, but end up with everyone’s rocks, ice cream, and no money. And finally, in Bedtime Banana, they play a silly trick on their mom to convince her they cannot possibly sleep without a bedtime banana. The text is large and kept in short lines on each page so that it is easy for the early reader to track their words and the vocabulary is accessible with a few occasional words to stretch their abilities. They also employ italics to emphasize words beyond simply exclamation points to introduce yet another way that the written word can express tone. There are beautifully drawn illustrations all throughout the book that provide context to help them as they work on reading. The brief chapters are also helpful by providing natural breaks for the readers who need it, or even more reading fun to be dived into immediately by those who can’t get enough. The lighthearted story of brothers with delightful illustrations coupled with accessible vocabulary make this book just right for an early reader who is itching to try reading more complex books on their own but isn’t quite reader for a full chapter book.
Published April 2017
This fun book of brotherhood is right on the boundary of an early chapter book. It contains four short stories about two brothers, Charlie and Mouse. In Lumps, they go about waking everyone up in the house and transforming them from lumps to family members. Then they all go the playground in The Party and invite their friends along to a neighborhood party. In Rocks, the brothers decide they would like to have some money and cook up a scheme to sell rocks, but end up with everyone’s rocks, ice cream, and no money. And finally, in Bedtime Banana, they play a silly trick on their mom to convince her they cannot possibly sleep without a bedtime banana. The text is large and kept in short lines on each page so that it is easy for the early reader to track their words and the vocabulary is accessible with a few occasional words to stretch their abilities. They also employ italics to emphasize words beyond simply exclamation points to introduce yet another way that the written word can express tone. There are beautifully drawn illustrations all throughout the book that provide context to help them as they work on reading. The brief chapters are also helpful by providing natural breaks for the readers who need it, or even more reading fun to be dived into immediately by those who can’t get enough. The lighthearted story of brothers with delightful illustrations coupled with accessible vocabulary make this book just right for an early reader who is itching to try reading more complex books on their own but isn’t quite reader for a full chapter book.