Venerable books for beginning readers
Published 12:01 am Monday, May 2, 2011
Here’s a look at three beginning readers that will give kids the giggles even as they’re sounding out the words:
“Dodsworth in Rome,” by author/illustrator Tim Egan, easy reader for ages 6 to 8, $14.99: Dodsworth, a peripatetic mouse, and his friend the duck are on the road again.
This time, their destination is Rome, where Dodsworth and the duck sample the gelato, drive a scooter in the Eternal City’s fabled traffic and win a pizza-dough-throwing contest.
Much of the comedy comes from the duck’s literal-mindedness. For example, when Dodsworth tells the duck they are going to a flea market, the duck thinks they will be purchasing fleas.
It’s just the type of broad humor that young readers love and adults also can appreciate.
“Should I Share My Ice Cream?” by author/ illustrator Mo Willems, for beginning readers ages 4 to 6, $8.99: Willems knows how to really tickle the funny bones of both children and adults.
He does it again with the latest entry in his “Elephant & Piggie” series in which Elephant Gerald gets an ice cream cone and then agonizes over whether he should share it with his best friend, Piggie.
By the time the essentially good-hearted Elephant Gerald resolves to share his ice cream, it has, of course, melted.
Both the text and illustrations in this book reflect Willems’ mastery of comic timing and his ability to say so much with so few words.
“Silly Lilly in What Will I Be Today?” by author/artist Agnes Rosenstiehl, for ages 5 to 7, $12.95: In France, she’s known as Mimi Cracra, one of the most beloved French comic characters.
Now young American readers are getting to know her as Silly Lilly via comic book readers published by TOON Books.
Silly Lilly takes young readers through a week of career changes. One day she’s an acrobat, another day she’s a teacher and so on through the week.
Rosenstiehl’s simple story is punctuated with silliness, as befits her heroine, while her attractive, stylized artwork extends the humor.
