The Horn Book Guide

EASY READERS

Gantos, Jack

Rotten Ralph Feels Rotten

48 pp. | Farrar | September, 2004 | Trade ISBN 0-374-36357-9 $$15.00

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Nicole Rubel. After a night of foraging in the neighborhood trash cans, Rotten Ralph wakes up with a tummy ache in this cautionary tale about eating junk food. Four short chapters give beginning readers appropriate starting and stopping places, and the illustrations not only parallel the text but also help define a few phrases ("furry fish") not often found in first-grade workbooks.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2004