Easy Readers and More: I Can Read MEME for May

Welcome to the May celebration dedicated to emerging and developing readers! This month we are hosting the I Can Read Feast for New Readers here at Share a Story - Shape a Future.

For the next three days we will be talking about easy reader and short chapter books. In the days to come, stop back by to find book reviews for easy reader, short and illustrated chapter books, as well as tips and ideas for nurturing the developing bookworms.

The blogosphere is starting to come alive with ideas and activities for summer reading ... that time of year when kids see "no school," and we think "but they need to keep their skills up." Even though easy readers and illustrated chapter books are designed to help new readers build their skills, there is no reason they can't be fun!

So to kick us off, I'm going to go back to a personal fave!

Andy Shane and the Queen of Egypt
by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
illustrated by Abby Carter
Candlewick Press, 2008
reading level: 3.5

Summary: Each student in Ms. Janice's class will do a project related to an African country for the Culture Fair. When Ms. Janice didn't hear Andy say "Egypt," Delores Starbuckle does her best to answer for him (and change his choice). In the process she announces to the class that she is the Queen of Egypt, and is left having to persuade Andy that they can work together. Andy needs time to think about it. This early reader chapter book offers a humorous story about friendship, passion, and school projects!


Anyone familiar with Andy Shane's relationship with Delores knows that these are fun, fun books. Although the reading level is for a third grader, my then first grader L-O-V-E-D this book. It is a just-right selection for families with mixed age audiences: whether mom and dad are doing all the reading or the third grader is reading alous with younger siblings!

Do you have a favorite summer read for new and developing readers? We'd love to add it to our list! Just add your link in the InLinkz collection or in our comments! We'll pull them all into the main post when the event closes.

Jennifer Wharton of the Jean Little Library blog sends us EllRay Jakes is NOT a Chicken by Sally Warner.

When a children's librarian starts a review with "I'm very excited about this new beginning chapter book series. It has so many elements I've been looking for!"you KNOW it has to be good! Here's an excerpt of what Jennifer has to say:

This is exactly the kind of character that the kids in my predominantly white, small Midwestern town will read about - because it's focused on people, not their race or culture, and whether the kids are a minority or not they can relate to EllRay who has identifiable problems. His race isn't ignored - he wishes there were more kids who looked like him "just so it would come out even" and it's a sensitive point for his dad and the other adults who are worried that he's getting bullied because of it, but Ellray knows that's not the point "Jared would have said something if it was. He is not the type of kid to keep things to himself. That much is obvious. Anyway, there are plenty of other things that could make him want to pick on me."

Be sure to read the full review ... and then head over to the library to check out this and other titles in the EllRay Jakes series.