My Pen Pal Pat (Real Kids Readers) (Real Kid Readers: Level 3)
Gr 1-3-Two phonics-based stories that are designed to encourage and assist children in their reading development. My Pen Pal, Pat is amusing, if a bit predictable. Two students named Pat-one in New York City and one in Boston-are paired together as pen pals. They seem to have everything in common: they both love baseball and pizza and they both have annoying siblings. Then they meet and are shocked to find out that one of them is a boy and the other is a girl. They realize that they still have a lot in common, however, and the friendship stands. In the second title, Brad is called to the principal's office. As he tries to figure out why, flashbacks show his recent escapades. The prankster's guilty conscience leads him to confess to the principal-who had actually summoned him to give him his forgotten lunch. The large, full-color photos of models trying to act are artificial and uninteresting; most of them show one or two characters against a white background. While both stories are well written, many readers will be turned off by the illustrations.-Dina Sherman, Brooklyn Children's Museum, NYCopyright 1998 Cahners Business Information, Inc.