Chapter Book for Emerging Readers

Today I have a nice book for struggling readers who want to move from early readers to chapter books.  Make no mistake about it.  Sometimes the girth of a book is more important than the actual story.  Kids get frustrated when they are still toting around the thin early reader books and their friends are on to chapter books.  The book I am profiling today has many of the elements of an early reader such as minimal text and plenty of pictures, but it also has chapters and substance, giving it some playground street cred.

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Title: Kung Pow Chicken: Let’s Get Cracking

Author: Cyndi Marko

Target: Kindergarten - Grade 2

Series: Yes

What this book is about: 
Gordon Blue is a typical second grade chicken until an accident at his Uncle’s lab turns him into Kung Pow Chicken.  He now  tingles when danger is near, flaps his wings like the wind and crows louder than the other chickens.  On a trip to the Fall Festival Gordon notices chickens loosing their feathers.  Naked chickens are filling the streets.  It is up to Kung Pow Chicken to find out what the evil Granny Goosebump is hatching and stop her.

Why I love this book:  
This book is a nice transition from early readers to early chapter books. Pictures dominate and speech bubbles hold text.  The Branches division of Scholastic has done a nice job with creating lots of titles to satisfy emerging readers and while the quality varies, this one is a nice addition.

This book was actually quite a bit tamer than I expected.  Gordon and his brother are nice kids and all the action and language is very age appropriate but still fun. I mean their weapons are drumsticks, knitting needles and yarn and who doesn’t love a great exclamatory “zoing!” when the bad guy gets cornered.

Who this book is for: 
Great for kids who are still struggling a bit with reading but want to move on to chapter books.  

Final thoughts: 
All the egg jokes just “cracked” me up!

To purchase this book:

Click on the following link to connect to Amazon: Kung Pow Chicken #1: Let's Get Cracking! (A Branches Book)  A portion of each purchase goes to support this blog at no cost to you.  Thank you for your support.