The Horn Book Guide

YOUNGER FICTION

Krensky, Stephen

Arthur and the Big Blow-Up

55 pp. | Little | April, 2000 | Trade ISBN 0-316-12129-0 $$12.95 | Paper ISBN 0-316-12203-3 $$3.95

(4) 1-3 Marc Brown Arthur Chapter Book series. Books eighteen, nineteen, and twenty in the series are adapted from teleplays for the PBS television show. Illustrated with shaded black-and-white line drawings, the stories revolve around school, family, and relationships, and all end happily as the children involved learn a lesson. The stories read briskly and the appeal is based on familiarity rather than literary quality, but the writing is solid.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth