Independent Reading Level: Grades 1-3

SO MANY DIFFERENT WORDS. When teaching "reading" as an early literacy skill, this would be a great book to explain to parents how reading opens up a child's vocabulary. ( )

Another childrens book for the perfectionist who melt down and yell ( )

Marigold, the grumpy orange cat from Marigold bakes a cake returns for his birthday. Marigold has baked an amazing cake and is ready to entertain all his animal friends with magic tricks for his birthday. But those bedeviling birds are back again and no matter what magic words he uses, he just can't get rid of them! Being Marigold, he eventually loses his temper and makes EVERYONE disappear - including his friends. Marigold realizes he just needs a few magic words to get his friends (and, unfortunately, the birds) back again.

Pudgy orange Marigold goes through a wide variety of emotions, mostly ranging from frustration to anger with a side of embarrassment when he makes his clothes disappear! and kids are certain to giggle along with the show. The colorful birds explode chaotically across the page and Marigold's magic is richly and wildly illustrated.

Verdict: I like the first Marigold story better, with its surprise ending, but this one with a more traditional ending; Marigold discovering he needs his friends and needs to say "please" and "thank you" will probably appeal more to most caregivers. Kids will just like the part where Marigold ends up in his underwear!

ISBN: 9781524737436; Published March 2019 by Philomel/Penguin; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library

Marigold the perfectionist cat returns in this follow-up to her initial picture-book adventure, Marigold Bakes a Cake. Throwing herself a magnificent birthday party, our feline heroine has everything in order: a magnificent cake, and a magical show like no other. But when her final trick doesn't go as planned, she gets more and more flustered, eventually making her entire audience disappear, with her bad temper. Can she find the magic words to bring them back...?

As the title here suggests, Marigold does indeed find those words, and all ends happily. An engaging second adventure, Marigold Finds the Magic Words explores a fairly common childhood experience - namely, having a temper tantrum when events become too much to handle, and one becomes frustrated and flustered - and offers a constructive solution to the problem: apologizing! The artwork here, done in watercolor, is quite appealing, with vivid color and a very expressive Marigold. Recommended to anyone looking for children's stories addressing frustration and having a temper tantrum, as well as to those readers who enjoyed Marigold's first story. ( )