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Scaredy Squirrel Prepares For Halloween (2013)

by Mélanie Watt(Favorite Author)

3.91 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1894786874 (ISBN13: 9781894786874)

languge

English

genre

Food & Cookbooks

publisher

Kids Can Press

review 1: Scaredy Squirrel is adorable, and I loved this book -- and if you are old enough to truly read this independently you will too! BUT, the story is over the heads of the intended audience of 4 to 8-year-olds, and it was a lot of work for this librarian to read it to them and get them to laugh. I read this to various groups of kindergartners through second grade, and only the second graders understood much of the humor. The word play went right over the heads of most kids -- for example, NONE of the nearly 200 kids I read this to understood the cleverness of using the word "claws" in lieu of the word "clause" for Scaredy's party-goer's contract. And the references to Albert Einstein (3 kids knew who he was) and Michael Jackson's moonwalk (0 knew that) fell flat with this age... more group -- though the teachers all chuckled.Having said all this, the book has the loveable Scaredy Squirrel, which means it will be checked-out over and over until it falls apart. Kids love this character and series of books (LOVE Scaredy dressed as a hot dog)and young ones will happily flip through and enjoy the illustrations.Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me a free eBook copy in exchange for my honest review -- the only kind I give!
review 2: Scaredy Squirrel is notorious for his timid nature, and the careful plans he makes to avoid potentially dangerous situations. In this book he faces Halloween with his usual meticulous planning, hoping to avoid any undue stress. Melanie Watt has a deft hand with humor and her illustrations are always fun. This book, however, was a tad disappointing in that it has no story. It contains eight short chapters that cover the basics of Halloween from decorations to costumes to parties and more. Don't get me wrong. There's a lot of gentle humor here, and this would be a great way to start a discussion about Halloween safety, or to reassure a timid youngster about this annual celebrations of scary stuff. There are tons of fun details in the illustrations that will keep young readers absorbed for hours. There's nothing wrong with the book (except for poor binding...libraries please buy this prebound!) but it lacks the laugh-out-loud elements found in many other books by this author/illustrator. Fans, however, probably won't care. less

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