Hanging Out

This is a nice little book that has a 'Toad and Frog' feel to it. There are three stories. In the first story, which is typical, Alien looks around and laments being the only one of his kind. That is, until Possum reminds him that this means he is special. Alien thinks about it and rejoices. However, this realization causes Possum to think about the fact that he is only one of 'kerbillions' of possums. And Possum's reaction is to lament that he isn't unique. That is, until Alien convinces him that this isn't true. There might be lots of possums, but only one like him. Possum is indeed unique. Thus both of our heroes rejoice in the end. The other two stories are similarly nice, warm, and supportive. As to reading level, the publishers list this book as a Level 3. Books at this level are for those who are 'Reading Proficiently'. They are supposed to offer 'rich vocabulary', more challenging stories and longer chapters. Challenging? I suppose the definition of challenging varies from child to child. I would say that these stories are not that challenging. We are not talking Tolstoy here. Yet, they are entertaining and fun and pretty good fair for the five to eight y.o. age range. Rich Vocabulary? If invented words make a book's vocabulary rich then this book fits this description. It has a great many words like: kerbillions, kazillions, and skadillions. Other than that I didn't think the words were overly difficult. My 6 y.o. could read this book. [I must note that she is a fairly good reader for her age though.] What WAS difficult was the amount of text. If you have a newer reader then you know how exhausting it can be for them to attempt pages with a great many words: especially if they are reading outloud. This book has a lot of text per page. We solved this problem, by the way, by simply taking turns reading. For more experienced readers, it should prove less of a problem. Four Stars. [B]. Cute artwork. Good Read-aloud. This is a level 3 reader that I tried to locate a 'leveled book' score for, but couldn't. If it's any help, the Lexile score is 160. But don't wait to buy it as a reader. Much younger children will probably enjoy the stories too.