Stinky Spike, early chapter books that boys will sniff out from the pack

We recently reviewed Agnes and Clarabelle, the first books in the Read & Bloom book series from Bloomsbury. They’re early chapter books with basic vocabulary and big illustrations to bring in young readers so that they want to read the books by themselves. That particular series will be more attractive to young girls. Stinky Spike is the next series of books in the Read & Bloom lineup and will be of interest to boys more than girls.

Stinky Spike is not exclusively for boys.  I’ll approximate it as an 80/20 boy to girl preference. The first book is Stinky Spike, The Pirate Dog. In this one Spike is a dog that lives by the sea in a busy port with all manner of boats. Spike is known for his nose and his ability to correctly identify (usually horrible) smells. One day while sniffing around the docks he slips and is swept out to sea where he meets up with a band of pirates.

However, this band of pirates is horrible. They have never found any treasure and are always roaming the seas looking for pirate booty, but always missing out. Stinky Spike the pirate dog and his super sensitive nose are tasked with sniffing out treasure. Sadly for the pirates, Spike’s idea of treasure and the pirate’s version of treasure are vastly different. Will he be able to sniff out the gold in time before he’s forced to walk the plank?

Our first grader absolutely loved this book. He laughed at the images of the pirate captain with fish parts in his beard, the dancing monkeys and various stinky situations. Each chapter is about 20 pages long with illustrations on most pages. If there is not an illustration on the page then there is a full paged illustration on the page opposite that.

The vocabulary is such that a second grader will be able to read it without assistance. Some first grade readers will be able to read the book themselves and younger kids will enjoy having the book read to them. For those younger kids it’s a long chapter for parents to read, but should only take parents about eight minutes to read the book in its entirety to them.

The second book, Stinky Spike and the Royal Rescue was one that our oldest son went ahead and read without us. He briefly described the plot to me as a Princess Pirate joins their ranks and Stinky Spike found some really stinky cheese. But the point is that he really enjoyed the book, read it multiple times, told his friends about it and wants to read by himself now.

Stinky Spike is a series of early chapter books by Read & Bloom. The story of a pirate dog with the world’s most powerful nose is one that first graders will seek out.