Tina KüglerRezensionen

Funny, early elementary easy reader book. Two friends have fun, easy to follow stories. Not very appealing as a read aloud because of simple vocabulary and storylines.

Pleasant and silly stories of two animal friends, with very short chapters.

This was so funny! Great for kids who like Elephant and Piggie.

This is an early reader book about a snail and a worm that are friends. There are three short stories included so the book is split into chapters. This book is good to give students confidence and practice. This is probably good for 2nd grade.

Siblings Fritz and Franny go to bed and each try to convince their pet dog Fred that their bunk is the preferred place to be, concocting imaginative roles for each, such as the top bunk being a sailing ship and the bottom bunk being a submarine. Which will Fred choose? And will Fritz and Franny ever stop bickering?

This was a very cute book that is just the right length and amount of text for kids who are just starting to advance past early readers but not quite ready for long chapter books yet. There are three short chapters in which the siblings have the usual bedtime routine/chaos familiar to any caregiver, try to convince Fred which bunk is preferable, and then suggest to each other a swap of bunks to prove their point. I really appreciate the part with the imaginative play, although the realization that each prefers their own bunk as best due to their own personalities was also a nice touch. The final story page reveal had me chuckle aloud. And the actual final page of the book includes a step-by-step tutorial of how to draw Fritz.

Foxes Fritz and Franny are super psyched for their day at the amusement park, but they cannot decide which roller coaster to ride first. When they finally agree on "The Big One," they start to have second thoughts...

This is a fun early reader, with enough repetition of simple, declarative language to make it manageable for beginning readers. Seeing the two foxes (presumably siblings?) argue about the best coaster will feel rather relatable for many young readers who have visited a local fair or other amusement arena.

The story has a few short 'chapters' (not titled as such), which make for good places to take a break and also serve to give children a feeling of accomplishment after completing the book. Other than the chapter headings, all of the text is by way of dialogue between the two foxes.

Inexplicably, the characters are all talking, anthropomorphized animals, but they still have a pet dog. The illustrations are more cartoon-like than I typically enjoy but they fit the text well enough.

Fox tails: The Great Bunk Bed Battle
Kids can relate to the sibling rivalry on what part of the bunk bed is better. At bedtime Fritz and Franny, two foxes, entice their dog Fred to come to their part of the bunk bed imagining all kinds of scenarios to make it more appealing. A tall tree house or a cave in the night, or the top of a castle compared to a spot under the bridge. The ideas become wilder, and Fritz and Franny are not ready to sleep until mom turns on the lights with a stern look on her face. When they do trade, both foxes realize using opposites that the top is too cold, the bottom is too hot and end up in Fred’s dog bed.
Easy repetitive text is displayed in cartoon balloons to make it look like a graphic novel. Colorful illustrations will make this interesting to beginning readers. The size of the books is more like a series book than a reader and could be interesting to 1st or 2nd grade emerging readers. The reviewer has a hardback copy. This is part of a series of books with the same characters.
R
Written
Kindergarten through 3rd grade

children's picture book/easy reader (friendship, funny short stories)
Adorable and funny, with dynamic pictures and short, punchy text--a good contender for our Seuss-day readalouds for sure.

The story starts off with a little girl and her pet goat. She tells us how her goat likes to eat oats, and her boat and then the goat eats her backpack. The little girl asks the reader if they would like a goat. The story goes on to show other pets such as a goldfish and what it can do as well as a dog and what it can do. It ends with the goat trying to eat the book. I would recommend this for optional purchase. It would be okay to add to a beginning reading collection if you were just focusing on the phonics of the story. The storyline flows until the end of the book when the goat eats the last page.

Tina Kugler, author of the silly and popular Snail and Worm easy readers, debuts a new Acorn series.
Fox siblings Fritz and Franny, and their dog Fred, need to go to bed. At least, their parent thinks so. They have other ideas. Once they're finally in bed, Franny in the (purple) top bunk and Fritz in the (orange) bottom bunk, the fun doesn't end... because now they're arguing about whose bed is best!

They imagine their bed as a castle, volcano, forest... but the fun quickly ends when their parent, looking even more exhausted, appears to order them to sleep, now! They're not done yet though - they decide to switch bunks. However, they quickly discover that while they love their own bunks, they don't love switching! The beds are too hot, too cold, too high, too low. Fortunately for them, they find the perfect bed where all three of them, including Fred the dog, can sleep comfortably.

While the parents are not definitely identified, the adult gray fox, matching Fritz, wears green pajamas and makes one brief appearance, reading the kids a bedtime story - and looking on helplessly when they turn it into a dance party. The adult red fox, matching Franny, wears a blue bathrobe and purple slippers and is present throughout, telling the kits it's time for bed, shooing them along, and coming back in, with increasing circles under their eyes, to tell them to quiet down and go back to sleep. It's pretty clearly implied that the gray fox is the dad and the red fox the mom - so one might want to know why all the bedtime rituals, not to mention discipline, are up to her!

Kugler's pictures are bright and cartoonish with cute little details, like acorns and paws carved onto the bunk bed. Franny and Fritz have long, sharp snouts and caregivers will appreciate watching their mom's patience diminish as the story continues.

Verdict: A funny addition to the Acorn line, although not necessarily a required purchase.

ISBN: 9781338561678; Published September 2020 by Scholastic; Purchased for the library

This book contains three vignette-style stories about a pair of friends. In the first one, Snail tells Worm how it’s the best day because others are having a great day, even if it wasn’t a good day for him.* Snail encounters a turtle in the second tale and mistakes the shell for a giant cave with a dragon inside. Finally, Snail asks Worm to tell him a story before bed.

This is another humorous book in the Snail & Worm series. I enjoy how the stories are more or less standalone so readers can pick up any title in the series in any order as well as picking up with any story within the book. My particular favorite in this title was the first one because I love the positivity of Snail’s outlook in viewing the day as great because others were happy, instead of being down because others had it better than them. An important lesson for all of us.

In general, Snail’s character is so funny as they are somewhat obtuse, but an over-the-top ridiculous state of unawareness nor is the humor mean-spirited about Snail’s perceptions. There were times I chuckled out loud with some of Snail’s comments; young readers will surely get a kick out of them also.

Illustrations fit the tone of the book well and help to amplify the story.

*Neither animal is actually given a gender, which is more refreshing than all the male-centric animal stories I’ve been reading lately, but less satisfying than if one or both was explicitly female, because sadly many of us will be ingrained like I was to assume male even though no gendered pronoun is used.

Best Day Ever
The Spooky Cave
A Bedtime Story

See also: Frog and Toad, Chick and Brain½

Meet My Friend
Snail's Adventure
Meet My Pet

See also: Chick and Brain by Cece Bell

*

Re-read May/June 2021½

This is a book about two different kinds of animals coming together to be friends. This is a short story that helps with fluency because the language is lower level and is very detailed.

In this sequel book, two pals have little adventures in three short vignettes. In the first one, a feather lands on Snail and he thinks he suddenly has wings; Snail finds a penny and thinks it is a mirror in the second one; and the final one is about how Snail wishes he has a more interesting shell. Throughout each episode, Worm is right there beside Snail to comfort him or ask questions about his discoveries.

This book is humorous, so it will definitely appeal to small children. The language is simple without being didactic or dull. The friendship between the two is obvious and uplifting. The illustrations fit the story's tone well.

This book is comprised of three short stories with very simplistic vocabulary but I'm confused as to who the target audience is. The language is very simple but very few young children will understand the punchlines at the ends of the story and it would probably take a great deal of explaining at the end of these tales for them to get it.

Snail and Worm are best friends who go on many adventures throughout the book. This series of books has different chapters which would be great for early readers. Teachers could create a lesson on the life cycle of a snail and worm to compare the differences between both insects.

Snail and Worm are friends who usher young readers into the world of chapter books. These funny little stories are enhanced by comical illustrations. These friends remind me of Frog and Toad. I hope they become just as popular! If my Story Time preschoolers are any judge, they will be!

I did not like this book for a few reasons. First, the book lacked an interesting plot. Marry, the main character, finds a shell on the beach and starts making a mysterious object. Readers later find out the object is a statue and that marry makes and collects statues. There is no real problem or climax, which causes readers to lose interest. Also, the characters are not described which makes it hard for readers to relate to the book. All readers know about Marry is that she owns 2 dogs and enjoys making statues. The only thing enjoyable about the book is the illustrations, which appear to be 3D looking on some pages. The main idea is unclear but one could guess that the author is trying to tell readers to do what they love. At the end of the book Marry is shown with all her statues that she has built overtime.

Funny picture book, with tiny chapters!!

mary loves art. she fell in love with art and decided to make some art in her backyard. she works very hard.
3 books

This is one of those quirky easy readers that I don't, personally, get the humor of but which reviewers generally love.

The first story features Snail with some new friends - a stick and a rock. Worm shows up and is introduced to "Bob" and "Ann" but gets a surprise when she asks Snail to play... The second story shows Worm encouraging Snail to follow her dreams and climb a tall flower. In the third story, Snail and Worm meet each other's pets, a dog and a spider, but which is which?

The stories are clever, but rely on a more subtle humor than I like to see in easy readers. I find that most kids can't concentrate on picking up more subtle cues in the art and text when they're trying to decode the language. I also felt that the endings of the three stories fell a little flat - they seemed like they needed something more.

I did love the illustrations. Cheerful greens picked out with red, brown, yellow and pink spread across the pages, showing Snail and Worm's miniature world. I liked the details of lines, they gave the book a cozy, friendly look.

Verdict: This isn't a really bad book; it's quite good, especially for a first effort, and I'd be happy to add it to my collection and use it in book club. It didn't wow me, but I did enjoy it. Kids who like understated humor and more classic easy readers will probably pick this one off the shelf.

ISBN: 9780544494121; Published 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Borrowed from another library in my consortium

Great introduction to Mary Nohl, the Wisconsin artists known for making uncommon art from common objects.