Our first panelist review of this year's Cybils comes from Round 1 Easy Readers/Short Chapter Books judge Katie Fitzgerald. Katie is a children's librarian and aspiring writer who posts book reviews, themed book lists, and more at Secrets & Sharing Soda. Fun fact: her blog name comes from a line in a Joni Mitchell song.
Earlier this year, Katie reviewed Cybils Easy Reader nominee Mittens at School (My First I Can Read) by Lola M. Schaefer, illustrated by Susan Kathleen Hartung. Mittens, of course, is a cat who goes to school with his owner for show and tell and ends up wreaking havoc. In her review, Katie says:
The best thing about the text is its use of onomatopoeia. When Mittens
counts the beads on an abacus, the sound is written as “Clink clink
clink.” Then there is the “plink plink plink” of the piano keys beneath
his paws, and the “flip flip flip” of the pages in a book.
Click here to visit her blog and read the full review.