  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 11/01/2011 PreS-Gr 1—These books deftly combine text and art to create a positive experience for new readers. They are larger than typical easy readers, leaving plenty of room for uncluttered, colorful cartoon illustrations and clear, large fonts. The sequencing of events in the uncomplicated plots leads to satisfying conclusions. In the first book, Björkman uses repetitive text and playful pictures to introduce appropriate behavior. "Dinosaurs don't run here" is demonstrated by a dismayed dinosaur in front of glassware falling from a china cabinet; opposite, "Dinosaurs do run here" shows two smiling creatures running through a playground. McPhail introduces the concept of up and down in the second title. "Boy saw Bird. Bird was up. Boy went up." When Dog wants to join them in the tree house but can't climb up, the boy comes down and solves the problem by hauling the pup up in a pail. And in Meisel's fun See Me Run, a game of follow the leader gets a pack of dogs running through mud and water and then stopping to dig up a big skeletal surprise. The lines "I run and run./See them come./They come and come./Will they get me?/No, no, no!/We go and go" are accompanied by playful pups of every variety shown running through a park. These titles have similar-sounding vowels and consonants, popular sight words, and short, simple sentences with clear punctuation, making them successful entries in the beginning-reader canon.—Kristine M. Casper, Huntington Public Library, NY - Copyright 2011 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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