Review Round-Up: Books for Beginning Readers, March 2016

Easy Readers

First up in this month's easy reader list is Tomie dePaola's new series about Andy and Sandy. The Cath in the Hat has a review of When Andy Met Sandy, and Kids Book a Day reviewed both When Andy Met Sandy and Andy and Sandy's Anything Adventure. Kids Book a Day also reviewed The Almost Terrible Playdate.

Emma Virjan's What This Story Needs is a Hush and a Shush continued to get attention from bloggers this month. There were reviews at Waking Brain Cells, Books 4 Your Kids, and Step Up Readers. Step Up Readers also had three other easy reader reviews: Zach and Lucy and the Museum of Natural Wonders, Wild Kratts Wild Animal Babies!, and Moo Bird.

Here at Story Time Secrets, I helped to promote some new characters from Mrs. Wishy-Washy creator Joy Cowley as part of the 2016 Joy Cowley Classroom Giveaway. I reviewed three titles each in the Sloppy Tiger and Oscar series. Other participants include Laugh Eat Learn and Reading Toward the Stars, with reviews of the Hairy Bear and Miniboy books, and Busy in Kindergarten, with a post about books starring Smarty Pants and Mr. Tang.

Finally, Becky's Book Reviews featured three easy readers this month: A Pig, a Fox, and a Box, Moo Bird, and Dance Dance Underpants and Flying Off My Bookshelf had one: Berkley the Terrible Sleeper.

Chapter Books

Among the chapter books this month were several titles in graphic format. Books 4 Your Kids, Jean Little Library, and Kids Book a Day all reviewed The Great Pet Escape, the newest book from Newbery Honor author Victoria Jamieson. Jean Little Library also featured Worm by Elise Gravel, while Mom Read It reviewed Hippopotamister and Geo Librarian posted about Stick Dog Wants a Hot Dog, as well as two other titles at this level which were identified as graphic novels.

Some specific titles emerged as the most popular this month. The Princess in Black has been receiving heavy review coverage with each new book published. This month, there were reviews of the second book of the series from The Book Chook, MySF Reviews, Sonderbooks, and One Great Book and reviews of book three from A Library of Reviews, Geo Librarian, and Jean Little Library.

Mo Willems's new chapter book collaboration with Tony diTerlizzi, The Story of Diva and Flea, was featured on three blogs: Sal's Fiction Addiction, One Great Book, and Jump Into a Book. There were also two reviews this month of Linda Urban's forthcoming chapter book, Weekends with Max and his Dad, which will be out on April 5th. Both Jen Robinson's Book Page and Sal's Fiction Addiction had in-depth posts about this title.

Other chapter reviews from March included:

• Anna Banana and the Big Mouth Bet and The Spelling Bee Scuffle, reviewed by Story Time Secrets
• Bad Kitty Goes to the Vet, reviewed by The Cath in the Hat
• Clover the Bunny, reviewed by Becky's Book Reviews
• Completely Clementine, reviewed by The Book Nut
• Great Reef Games and Arctic Freeze, reviewed by Story Time Secrets
• Mango and Bambang: Tapir All at Sea, reviewed by Playing by the Book
• My Father's Dragon, reviewed by Story Time Secrets
• My Life in Pictures, reviewed by Kids Book A Day
• The Oodlethunks: Oona Finds an Egg, reviewed by Jen Robinson's Book Page 
• Rascally Rabbits! And More True Stories of Animals Behaving Badly! reviewed by Geo Librarian
• Stowaway! (Puppy Pirates #1), reviewed by Geo Librarian
• Tooth Bandits (Stella and the Night Sprites #2), reviewed by Mom Read It