Agnes and Clarabelle, early chapter books for young readers

Our oldest son’s reading teacher called the house the other day. She simply called to let us know that he was going to transition out of the ‘assisted’ class and back into the main class for reading. * He has been reading chapter books for a while and easily glides through the 10 page large print short stories his teacher sends home. For young readers that are transitioning to early chapter books Bloomsbury has a new line of books out called Read and Bloom. The first series of these young reader books are out and Agnes and Clarabelle is just the sort of thing that’ll engage elementary school students.

Agnes and Clarabelle are two best friends, a pig (Agnes) and a duck (Clarabelle) navigate the high points of a year in each book. In Agnes and Clarabelle the two friends share their favorite activities in each season. They have a party in the spring, go to the beach in the summer and eat pizza in winter. Each chapter ranges in the number of pages from 13 to 20, with large font and lots of bright, colorful art. They sell for $9.99 each and are hard cover, which cool because it encourages young readers to build a library of their own.

The second book in the series is Agnes and Clarabelle Celebrate! In this book the two friends experience the Fourth of July, New Year’s Eve and Halloween. It’s the same format with the two going through the year, but here they’re sharing traditions and becoming better friends as they encounter each season.

Agnes and Clarabelle is co-authored by Adele Griffin and Courtney Sheinmel, with the illustrations done by Sara Palacios. This is a cute series of early chapter books for young readers that will mainly appeal to girls. Our 7YO loves animals and does many of the things that the characters do in the books, but wasn’t keen on reading the books a second time. For girls the experience will be vastly different as they’ll laugh, point at the illustrations and talk about their friends doing the things that Agnes and Clarabelle do in the books.

There are other books in the Read and Bloom line and our 7YO has already gravitated towards one of them. Stinky Spike, The Pirate Dog is one that he’s read a couple of times and the forthcoming The Adventures of Caveboy is also one that he’s expressed interest in. The fourth book in the Read and Bloom line, Wallace and Grace are the stories about a pair of owls that solve crimes and looks to appeal to boys and girls equally.

 

*We also found his placement in said class a bit odd as he’s an avid reader. He does tend to hurry when he reads and is not a fan of reading out loud in a class setting. To be fair, I hated that as a kid too and dreaded the moment when it was my turn to read one or two sentences as the kid’s reading version of Russian roulette played out in elementary school.