(4) 1-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Ilene Richard. Jeff finds a pirate map in the library before he joins his uncle's expedition in search of a ship wrecked off the Florida coast in 1652. The map turns out to be key in locating the ship and its treasure. Despite its predictable and unlikely plot, the subject matter and brief chapters make this an appealing read for newly independent readers. Color illustrations appear throughout the slim book.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(4) 1-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Colin Paine. Tired of being picked on by the class bully, third-grader Tim organizes an "Annoying Team" to get back at Jon. After its initial success, the group gets out of hand: it harasses a substitute teacher with bird calls, holds up the school lunch line by dropping coins, etc. Illustrated with serviceable line drawings, this simple story has an intriguing premise but is too easily resolved.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(3) K-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Alexi Natchev. Based on a traditional Jewish tale and presented in easy-reader format, this story of compassion is fully realized. Ella, Bella, and Stella, three kind sisters, work together to use their magic possessions to save a dying prince. The illustrations have a generalized European feeling, but the story isn't set in a specific place or country. An author's note provides information on one version of the tale.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(4) K-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Peter Grosshauser. An adaptation of an Aesop fable illustrates the moral that "little by little does the trick." While a resourceful crow figures out a way to drink the water in a thin-necked bottle, his lazy friend gives up and almost dies of thirst in the hot desert. Very short rhyming sentences and intensely colored paintings, in which the crows look like escapees from Saturday morning cartoons, provide a story for beginning readers.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(4) 1-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Michael Chesworth. Miami (Michael Andrew) earns detention on the first day of fourth grade, but he comes to appreciate his strict new teacher. While this chapter book, illustrated with spirited black-and-white pictures, is predictable and fourth-grader Miami comes across sounding more like a sophisticated middle schooler, the reading is easy and the characters are appealing.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(4) K-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Tom Leonard. In an informative if cursory text, readers learn about the habits of honeybees throughout the year. Large, generic illustrations show bees gathering pollen, building a hive, feeding larva, communicating, and protecting their honey from predators. This is an adequate nonfiction choice for newly independent readers.

Reviewer: Luther B. Clegg

(3) 1-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Lynne Cravath. The newest fourth-grade adventure from Starvation Lake features Baylor, an overprotected boy who fears animals, hypothermia, and teasing on the class overnight at an ecology center. The other kids include him, however, and the outdoors provides challenges he can meet. With Cravath's black-and-white sketches, Whelan's age-appropriate anecdotes and smooth pacing provide solid entertainment.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(3) K-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Ilja Bereznickas. Walter really wants a job like his uncle's someday; after all, Uncle Roy's "office has a great view," and "the pay is terrific." The cartoon illustrations give Walter's rather ordinary remarks a comical new meaning; though the simple, large-print text never says so, the pictures reveal that Uncle Roy is a pirate whose "office" is a ship and whose "pay" is buried treasure.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(3) 1-3 Road to Reading series. Despite his great-aunt's warnings, Martin stares into the eyes of the fox that visits the yard each afternoon. They magically trade bodies, and each gets to experience life as the other for a day. This fanciful tale, illustrated with spry black-and-white line drawings, brims with the flavor of fables and will appeal to any child who has daydreamed about living in the animal world.

Reviewer: Erica L. Stahler

(4) K-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith. Pepe and Papa set off to the market with their burro carrying a basket of chiles. Then they see a boy riding a burro and rearrange their configuration. Now Pepe rides the burro, and Papa carries the basket of chiles on his head. They rearrange a few times until: "Papa in bushes. Pepe in basket. Chiles in burro. Oh, oh!" This beginning reader features a simple, somewhat dull sixteen-word text and warm illustrations.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(3) 1-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Michael Chesworth. Miami Jackson's archenemy, Destinee Tate, has followed him to baseball camp where she's campaigning for a single all-star team that includes both boys and girls. Meanwhile, Miami falls under the spell of an older bully. Fast moving and full of fun, this is great summertime reading. Chesworth's occasional black-and-white illustrations are inviting and humorous.

Reviewer: Amy Lois Cohn

(4) K-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by David LaFleur. With short, simple sentences, Penner describes Shackleton's 1914 attempted expedition to Antarctica. The complete rescue and the most dramatic moments are included, such as Shackleton's plucking a crew member out of the icy water as the floe split beneath their tent, but quotations are undocumented. The text is illustrated with adequate artwork and four black-and-white photographs.

Reviewer: Bridget McCaffrey

(4) K-3 Road to Reading series. In this rather slight story, Cat and Rat receive ice skates for Christmas but are disappointed when the weather never gets cold enough for the pond to freeze. The duo then join an indoor rink and get to be skating snowballs in an ice pageant. The rhyming text is accompanied by cartoonlike illustrations that contain vivid color and movement.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(3) K-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Bob Doucet. This smoothly written account of the "Cardiff Giant" describes why George Hull had a man-made statue buried in a farm field and how it became a tourist attraction as a fossilized human. Illustrated with color artwork and a few black-and-white photographs, the true historical account of a nineteenth-century hoax will intrigue early readers.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) K-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Michael Langham Rowe. Short chapters with average illustrations describe and picture horses living wild such as the Assateague ponies, the brumbies of Australia, British Exmoors, and the Mongolian wild horses. The examples jump from country to country and from era to era with neither maps nor time lines to offer context, but the simple, repetitive sentence structures support young readers.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(3) K-3 Road to Reading series. Beans Baker is eagerly awaiting the start of Little League--but when he gets the jersey number once worn by "Wrong Way" Haskins, he is ready to quit rather than face certain teasing and taunting. A comeuppance for the team's bully and a funny, happy ending will leave readers cheering. Text appropriate for newly independent readers is paired with lively, cartoonlike illustrations.

Reviewer: CHristine Sarrazin

(4) 1-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Lynne Cravath. The fourth-grade class in Starvation Lake has a contest to raise the most money for an overnight trip. The boys charge admission to see a corpse at the funeral home (the "corpse" turns out to be a practical joke), while the girls sell homemade candy with an unusual recipe. Black-and-white cartoon illustrations accompany this fast-paced, chatty and good-humored story, but the abrupt ending is anticlimactic and disappointing.

Reviewer: Mark Adam

(4) K-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Jim Ishi. Gently rhyming, very simple text has a bear child asking his parents for hugs, and they respond with variety: "A wet hug? / A dry hug? / A fly up to the sky hug?" Full-color illustrations show the red-cheeked, smiling bears frolicking in fields of smiling flowers under a smiling sun. The greeting-card treatment may turn off some readers, but others will like the sweet tale.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(3) K-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Michael Maydak. Using basic, easy sentences, this introduction to elephants covers the habits of elephants in the wild, distinguishes between African and Asian elephants, reviews what is known about elephant emotions, and discusses research and conservation efforts. Vocabulary words like savannah and habitat are defined within the text. Simple watercolor paintings illustrate the book.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(4) 1-3 Road to Reading series. Illustrated by Michael Chesworth. This short novel deals with the final days of third grade and the conflicts that ensue when students try to choose a class gift for their teacher. The drama is in bold relief here--the kids use plenty of slang and the text is heavy on dialogue and exclamation points. Chesworth's cartoon style illustrations are equally exaggerated. There is not much substance, but there is plenty of kid appeal.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth