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It’s a situation kids know all too well: the food they have to eat is BORING! What’s the answer? Trade and share! Three friends see how fair they can be as they distribute and redistribute the food they brought. The lively, appealing art comes from Pete Whitehead—illustrator of Scooters.

PreS-Gr 1— In the first title, three animal friends picnic at the park, where they trade food items and share. Fun! features a trip to an amusement park by three pals, and one of them shows bravery and good decision-making. In Surprise! , three children serve their mother breakfast in bed. The writing in these offerings is stilted and all too reminiscent of basal readers. Surprise! , a Level 1 reader, has nearly 50 different words, and the other books, at Level 2, almost 100. All three titles have a white band at the top of each spread with new vocabulary introduced on those pages. A note to parents gives ideas for helping children use the books for reading practice. Each book has colorful, cartoon-style illustrations. Share has computer-generated characters in bold, rounded shapes; Fun has stylized pictures that evoke Japanese cartoons; and Surprise! has watercolor-and-pen drawings with characters who have dot eyes and two curved lines for nose and mouth. The pictures support the texts well, giving cues to decoding. Libraries that need more books to reinforce reading skills might find these titles useful.—Lynda Ritterman, Atco Elementary School, NJ

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