Eva's Treetop Festival

Reviewed by: Deidre Walsh - Goodall Memorial Library, Sanford, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: May 6, 2016

Review

Branches is Scholastic's new line of easier chapter books. The Owl Diaries is a new series and is part of Branches. I don't like to differentiate between girl books and boy books, but this series is definitely geared more towards young and tween girls. Olive, Eva the owlet, who is the main character in this series, good very well be a tween girl if she wasn't an owl. Presented in diary format, with pink lined notebook paper, Eva writes about her life and her various adventures and escapades. She writes of her likes (school, art, clothes) and her dislikes (her brothers smelly socks), life with her family, and her adventures at school. She learns about friendship, teamwork, perseverance, & cooperation. The illustrations are happy, bright & bold digitally rendered. They will hook young readers, as will the fun story line. Readers will love Eva's busy enthusiasm. Readers will also appreciate the easy to read text, larger font, short chapters and speech bubbles. A fine choice for independent readers who enjoy fun stories about friendship.

Overall Book Score: very good