The Big Orange Book of Beginner Books

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - North Yarmouth Academy, Yarmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: September 16, 2015

Review

There is nothing new here, just a sold collection of Seuss stories with their usual eye toward vocabulary building, entertainment, and silliness. But the books stand the test of time and will delight children, either as read-alouds or for exercises in independent reading as they might choose to bring it home and tackle the book on their own. A collection like this could be unwieldy for a little reader, but older readers, those in first and second grade, will like the accomplishment of reading many books. The titles: *Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now?: At 25 pages, this is the shortest story in the book; it's matter-of-fact ending has been making children laugh for years and will continue to do so. *The Shape of Me: Not Seuss's strongest story, but nice for allowing children to identify shapes of objects and match them with their words. *In a People House: Great vocab builder; full-color illustrations help with the identification of each object *Hooper Humperdink...? NOT HIM!: This one was new to me. An A-to-Z of names featuring fantastic illustrations by Mainer Scott Nash, a departure from the Suess/McKie illustrations. Deals with the issue of exclusion but with a happy conclusion. *Ten Apples Up On Top!: A long story at 60 pages with an emphasis on counting from 1-10; lots of rhyming vocab, predictive text; message of "getting along in the end". A fun read-aloud with an opportunity to do a few voices. *Because A Little Bug Went Ka-Choo!: Again, different illustrations, from Michael Frith, but not such a departure from Seuss's own illustrations. A fun story, GREAT read-aloud, emphasizes cause-and-effect.

If you already have the individual titles, not an essential purchase, but if you're looking to update your collection or are building a Dr. Seuss collection, this is a inexpensive, nice way to do it.

Overall Book Score: very good