Locked in the Library!: A Marc Brown Arthur Chapter Book 6 (Marc Brown Arthur Chapter Books)
Grade 1-3-Both of these 10-chapter books based on scripts for the PBS Arthur series read smoothly and clearly. In Dino, Arthur and Buster discover a fossilized footprint while on a school field trip. Arthur wants to return it, as the park rules state, but Buster insists on taking it home. However, his bad dreams, his short temper with friends and family, and his guilt over his theft prompt him, with Arthur's support, to return the fossil. While the last chapter abruptly passes over the actual return, readers see Arthur and Buster's satisfaction at their right action and the museum label with their names on it in the fossil display. In Locked, Arthur and Francine, who continue to have an off-and-on friendship, lose sight of the time while working on a school report and are locked inside the library at the five o'clock closing. After an unsuccessful attempt to make a phone call, they find the librarians' lounge complete with leftover snacks, where they remain until they are rescued by some frantic adults. These are good, predictable entries in a series whose familiar characters, drawn in black line and appearing in one full-page illustration per chapter, continue to encourage children to attempt longer texts.Susan Hepler, Burgundy Farm Country Day School, Alexandria, VACopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.