Snail And Worm: Three Stories About Two Friends (edizione 2019)

Meet My Friend
Snail's Adventure
Meet My Pet

See also: Chick and Brain by Cece Bell

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Re-read May/June 2021 ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )

Funny picture book, with tiny chapters!! ( )

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