Tish Rabe

Using the classic Christmas carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas, as an inspiration, author Tish Rabe explores the fun things a new student can do during the first twelve days of first grade. From telling the time to leading the line, from performing in a play to building things with clay, as the narrator here concludes, first grade is lots of fun...

Apparently the second book in which Rabe has used The Twelve Days of Christmas to create a text exploring the first day of a new school year - show more that initial title was On the First Day of Kindergarten - On the First Day of First Grade was somewhat less than impressive. I found the text awkward, and rather forced. It didn't read particularly well, and although I attempted to follow along using the tune of the carol, it didn't quite work. Although I realize that the idea here is to highlight fun activities a child in first grade might enjoy, I also had to wonder at a text in which a play is put on the eighth day of school. The artwork by Sarah Jennings is colorful, and features a diverse cast of children, but leaving that aside, there really isn't much here that I would recommend. There are far better "first day of school" books, from Ryan Higgins' humorous We Don't Eat Our Classmates to Alyssa Satin Capucilli's sweeter Not This Bear: A First Day of School Story. I would recommend that potential readers track down those titles instead. show less

I generally disapprove of books with Dr. Suess characters that are not written by Dr. Suess. On the other hand, the Suess-ian style did engage the three year olds I teach enough for them to ask me to read this book over and over, despite the fact that a lot of the information inside (right vs. left brain, the fact that your eyes invert the images you see) are difficult concepts for children of that age.

Fans of Dr. Seuss's favorite feline will enjoy learning through rhymed couplets and cartoonlike illustrations similar to the originals. Each book combines basic facts with interesting trivia to introduce readers to topics that are sure to be of interest. From Bugs: "Here is a riddle/I learned from my mother./How's a skunk and a ladybug/like one another?/When danger is near,/it is easy to tell-/they suddenly give off/a terrible smell!" While the grammar is off, Seussian rhyme is rarely show more totally correct ("thunk"). In Space, readers learn, "On Venus the weather/is always the same-/hot, dry, and windy,/with no chance of rain." The familiar format and entertaining text are sure to appeal to beginning readers. show less

I never seem to be able to get enough easy readers to satisfy my patrons, especially in the summer. The books just fly off the shelves, leaving behind only the worn and ancient titles that should really be weeded and/or replaced. Most popular are the very beginning, just a few words per page, titles - which, of course, are the most difficult to find. Anyhow, I am on several publisher newsletters and will pretty much try anything new that comes out. This is a new series from the ever-growing show more I Can Read line.

Huff is an engine, Puff is the caboose. They work together well until one day they each decide the other train has it easier and they want to try switching. Of course, they both discover that they're better suited to their own jobs and the other train really does work hard. If you want to get really picky, you could dissect the socioeconomic implications of the cliched plot, which basically says that everyone has one specific thing they're good at and you can't deviate from that role. It's a pretty common plot in children's books and I think it stems from folktales - there are quite a few about sticking to your own role in life, not surprising since most of them sprang from feudal societies. It would have been more interesting, to me at least, if Huff and Puff had discovered that, with a little hard work, they could both enjoy doing a different job now and then and been able to switch off in the future. I mean, come on, has the train never heard of cross-training?

However, for a beginning reader the plot isn't really the point - the combination of text and art and how well it does its job of giving kids a simple plot that they can follow while still decoding the words is paramount. How well does it do this? Not very well, to be honest. The pages are full-color, with cute, rounded illustrations of the anthropomorphic trains and their cargo, a collection of brightly-colored animals. The illustrations are certainly cute, but they overshadow the words and make it difficult to pick them out from the pages. On one page the sentence is placed against a railroad tie, on another it's buried in the grass, etc. When the trains switch places, it gets even more confusing as they fill the page, bulging around the words, and making it difficult to keep track of which is Huff, which is Puff, and where they are on the train. The refrain "Click-ity clack, click-ity clack" or "Click-ity, click-ity clack" is repeated multiple times, and I can't help but wonder if there weren't better words to reinforce through repetition.

Verdict: If you are in urgent need of easy readers it's a decent filler series, especially for a library like mine where I'm having to look for easy readers to appeal to younger and younger kids, but if you're watching your budget or looking for high-quality easy readers this isn't a necessary purchase.

ISBN: 9780062305022; Published 2012 by HarperCollins; Purchased for the library show less