Pete Won't Eat

Two new I Like to Read titles give emergent readers fresh takes on familiar words and subjects. In Come Back, Ben plenty of repetition and fanciful cut-paper and ink illustrations take a boy and a red balloon to new heights. "Ben's balloon went up. 'Come back, Ben,' said the window." The bees, the tree, the rain, the rainbow, and others call him back as well, but the balloon keeps going until it reaches the moon, where Ben stops for a while before heading back down past everything he met on the way up. Concluding with a twist, the story shows that excellent adventure can develop out of words and sentences simple enough for the newest readers. In Pete Won't Eat readers witness picky eating, piggy-style, when Mom makes a special dish--green slop. "Dot loves the slop. Rose slurps the slop. Gus has all of it. But Pete won't eat." Thus begins a standoff between Mom and Pete, and the pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations depict the frustration on both sides. Mom almost gives in just as Pete concedes by taking a bite and discovering that he enjoys slop after all. Both books have a picture-book trim size with large font, few words on a page, and plenty of white space, making them well designed both for sharing and independent reading. julie roach