Show & Tell

January 1, 2012
For readers who enjoy the slapstick humor of the Ready, Freddy! chapter-book series, there's now a female perspective in the new spin-off series, Double Trouble, featuring Freddy's identical twin cousins, Kasey and Kelly. Kasey narrates this first installment, in which the twins, who like to finish each other's sentences, begin a study on pets and (unrealistically) convince their teacher to hold a show-and-tell–style Pet Day. Because their dad is a veterinarian, the girls easily discuss various types of pets, from cats and hamsters to tarantulas and geckos. Graphite illustrations heighten the comedic results as Kasey and Kelly become entangled in one antic after another. They give their little brother, Kenny, doggie treats while he pretends to be a dog (after first sampling the treats themselves) and set up a race to determine which of their large stock of pets will accompany them to school. A classroom full of pets? Of course, it's an accident--and hilarity--waiting to happen. In this case, it's Kasey's gecko that escapes when her bubble gum fails to secure a broken cage door lock. As in the Freddy titles, an activity page concludes the book. The twins' second escapade, April Fool's Surprise, will be released simultaneously. Simple reading before moving on to the more sophisticated Ivy + Bean. (Fiction. 6-9)

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May 1, 2012
Grades K-3 Klein, author of the Ready, Freddy! series, introduces Freddy's twin cousins, Kasey and Kelly, in what promises to be a prolific new series of beginning chapter books. This is narrated in the first person by Kasey and centers on the upcoming Pet Day at school. Altogether, the twins, whose dad is a vet, have eight pets, and they wonder which one to showcase. The story is engaging, with plenty of humorous quirks, like a free-roaming gecko and a tarantula who likes to ride around on the girls' heads. The characters feel flat, and the children's jokes about their prim classmate, Madison, are notably mean-spirited. The Ruby Lu series by Lenore Look is funnier and has more developed characters. Still this first entry in the Double Trouble series will find its fans, and it is a solid choice for libraries with high demand for beginning chapter books.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)