The Garden Crew The Juggle Puzzle Dad Does It All

K-Gr 1—In Garden Crew, students plan, plant, and harvest flowers and vegetables. It is the best of the three titles; it includes a few teachable moments that could be connected to a science unit on plants, and the children depicted in the full-color art are active and engaging. Great vocabulary words like "sow," "loam," "silt," and "harvested" are included. Juggle Puzzle is a revamping of the classic river-crossing logic problem: a boy in a circus must get a goat, a cabbage, and a wolf to the other side. In this version, though, the cabbage has been replaced by a stew that for some unknown reason is inedible to the tiger, but delicious to the goat. The story is repetitive and lacking in plot, continuity, and illustration quality. In Dad Does It All, Mom is sick, so stereotypical, bumbling Dad has to make a go of simple household chores. It's a good thing his son knows how to order delivery pizza. It's a negative portrayal of the man's capabilities; even the birds are critical of his performance: "When on the deck he sat to rest,/a bird dropped droppings on his chest." The books are designed for use as home learning tools. They include an introduction to phonics for parents, suggestions for discussing and reading together, and rhyming and word family games to play before and after reading. All of them focus on long "e," "o," and "u" sounds, as well as "es," "ed," and "ly" endings. Purchase the first one if more easy readers are needed.—Jasmine L. Precopio, Fox Chapel Area School District, Pittsburgh, PA