The Halloween Costume Contest

School Library Journal

K-Gr 2—These books feature a Berenstain Bear-like bear named Herbie. Basic reading skills are needed for all of them, but they vary in terms of difficulty, vocabulary, and sentence structure. Illustrations help emerging readers decipher unfamiliar and/or longer words. None of the titles has chapters or other story breaks. Each page has one or two sentences. Halloween, Valentines, and Thanksgiving take place at school with many other cartoon animals featured as classmates and teachers. The activities described will be familiar to primary-grade students, adding to their ability to decode the texts. These three stories present Herbie displaying teamwork, selflessness, compassion, and good sportsmanship. One error—Thanksgiving is incorrectly noted on a calendar as the third Thursday in November instead of the fourth. Blastoff describes a trip to a science museum. Herbie recovers his nerve when he realizes the ride in the replica space shuttle will be fun instead of frightening. While nothing special, these offerings are functional additions to easy-reader collections.—Lisa Crandall, formerly at Capital Area District Library, Holt, MI