Owl Diaries: Eva's Treetop Festival, by Rebecca Elliott-- a cute early chapter book

Some days the undemanding and the cute is all that one can cope with, and so I was rather pleased to find Owl Diaries: Eva's Treetop Festival, written and illustrated by Rebecca Elliott (Scholastic, Jan. 2015, from their Branches series of early chapter books) on my shelf of review copies.  This diary-format, cheerful book was just right for today's reading level.

Eva is a young owl of the busy, crafty sort, full of bright ideas and at times a bit bossy.  I warmed to her right from the beginning of her self-introduction, because in her list of favorite things there is a word (pumpkin) and in her list of un-favorite things there was another word (plop) and I always like to meet fellow lexophiles.

Eva decides to make life more interesting by organizing a "flap-tastic" spring festival, and she has tons of great ideas about what it should include.  But Eva thinks she can do it all herself, and it's not until it's almost the day of the festival that she realizes that including others in the work is a good idea!  All goes well, for everyone but Eva, who then gets to learn the equally valuable lesson that yesterday's embarrassments can be left to yesterday.

The brightly drawn young owls with their big big eyes bounce all over the pages, in way that I think will feel very friendly and familiar to young consumers of graphic content--it's very easy to imagine the owls animated in an interactive computer game!

The pinkness of this first book in the series points it toward girls (and the promotional description explicitly says it's for girls)....and Eva isn't exactly smashing gender stereotypes with her main interests (bead crafts and fashion) but I've known several small boys who love those stuffed animals with the really (horrifyingly) huge eyes, and it might well appeal to them too.  Especially since the second book in the series, Eva Sees a Ghost (coming in May), goes more toward the blue end of things....And I know for a fact that even an eleven year old boy might, on being shown the picture of Baxter, Eva's pet bat, say something along lines of "oh iss [sic] so cute...."

So a perfectly nice easy and appealing book for young readers; I'd say the perfect reader would be the older 1st grader/younger 2nd grader.  Though I don't think I myself will be seeking out the subsequent volumes, I'm happy to recommend it for those who like their anthropomorphized animals to come with a cuteness so great it might set a cynical grown-up's teeth on edge if they weren't in just the right mood for it......(except that I don't think I will ever be able not to flinch just at tad at "flap-tastic" and the like....)

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

Moldylocks and the Three Beards, by Noah Z. Jones

Some weeks life is busy, and there just isn't time to read and write lots, and so the blogging is slow.  And it's been even slower for me because most of the books I have managed to finish recently didn't move me to write about them, mostly because of me not having the mental energy to figure out and express eloquently why they hadn't worked for me.

So last night I turned to a book from a series (Scholastic's Branches) that promises to build "reading confidence and stamina," both of which I feel I need right about now.

Moldylocks and the Three Beards, written and illustrated by Noah Z. Jones (Scholastic, published in paperback in Jan 2014, and in a hardcover library edition April 29) is the first book in a series--"Princess Pink and the Land of Fake-Believe."   My eyes rolled when I read the words "Princess Pink," but not so much so that I was unable to look at the cover more closely.  And lo, Princess Pink seemed pretty cool. 

So I tried it last night, and rather enjoyed it, and can happily recommend it.  If you are a young reader who enjoys the absurd. and who is looking for something fun and easy, this is what you get here.

Princess Pink is not a princess; after seven boys, her mother wanted a one, and so that's what she was named.  She hates pink.  She turned her pink fairy dress into a cowboy caveman outfit.   (Perhaps her hatred of pink, and her taste in dirty sneakers and bugs is a tad polarizing--does the cheesy pizza she enjoys really have to look so gross?  And one can enjoy the outdoors without one's shoes stinking.  But this is not a book that aims for subtly, so I shall let it pass).

And in any event, Princess Pink opens her fridge one night, and falls (literally) into a the Land of Fake-Believe, where she visits the home of three beards (not nice) in the company of a girl named Moldylocks.   The whole beard premise was rather effective, and I enjoyed it.

Recommended for those who don't mind negative portrayals of pink princess stuff.  

Not particularly recommended for those who don't like whimsical stories whose primary point is to make learning to read entertaining.  Also not recommended for those who loath spiders.  There are too many spiders for those readers to take.

Not really recommended to their adults for their own reading pleasure, although it was kind of exactly right for my tired brain last night...........and I might well find myself picking up Little Red Quaking Hood when it comes out in August.

Note:  Princess Pink's family looks to be African-American--pretty darn rare in easy-reader fantasy books!  (quick--name another girl character of color in an easy reader fantasy book.............those dots are me not being able to).

Disclaimer:  review copy received from the publisher