342-343. Two Early Readers (Last Reviews of the Year)

342. Frog Can Hop (Ready to Read, Ready to Go) Laura Gehl. Illustrated by Fred Blunt. 2023. [December] 32 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Frog can hop. Pig can flop. Frog can mop. Pig can flop. Frog can shop. Pig can flop.

Premise/plot: Frog and Pig are friends....mostly. However, Frog does tend to carry the load while Pig, well, Pig mainly just flops, and flops, and flops. But when Frog drops....well, Pig may just have the opportunity to do more than flop.

My thoughts: This is an early reader for those just beginning to learn to read. The illustrations do some of the heavy lifting in terms of storytelling. The plot moves forward mainly because the illustrations clearly convey the action and characters. The simple text is focusing on the '-op' family. (Bop, chop, drop, flop, hop, mop, plop, pop, shop, stop) It also includes two basic sight words: "and" and "can." 

I do think this one has a plot. It is more than just practicing sounding out op words. I enjoyed the humor.

343. Monkey Cam (Critter Cam) Margie Palatini. Illustrated by Dan Yaccarino. 2023. [December] 32 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: Yawn.

Premise/plot: This year there have been a whole line of books in the Critter Cam series. This one stars a monkey wearing a camera in an helmet. The plot is super simple. Readers observe the world from two perspective--third person perspective and first person perspective. Monkey is having quite a day.

My thoughts: I liked this one okay. Not my favorite in the series. Not my least favorite in the series. It does feature "monkey speak" which some may enjoy. I certainly enjoyed monkey chatter as a kid.

 

 

© 2023 Becky Laney of Young Readers