Calvin Coconut: The Zippy Fix by Graham Salisbury illus. by Jacqueline Rogers This is the second book in the new early readers series featuring Calvin Coconut. I loved the first one Calvin Coconut: Trouble Magnet. 9 yr old Calvin lives in Hawaii with his mom and younger sister Darci. After Calvin's dad changed their last name to Coconut (for his act), he left for Las Vegas. The family of three turns into four when Stella moves in. Stella is the teenager daughter of Calvin's mom's best friend. Calvin and Stella don't get along too well. Calvin sneaks a cat into Stella's bedroom, knowing she has allergies. Stella gets sick and misses a big date. Calvin feels guilty, after he finds out Stella picked out the book Hatchet for him at the bookstore. He decides to get Stella a great gift for her birthday. Now all he needs is money.Calvin is a great character. There are not enough early readers with male characters of color as the main protagonist or a multicultural cast, this series has both. I love that who they are has nothing to do with the story. There are other things that stand out for me, Calvin's mom works at Macy's. Usually parents only have professional occupations, if what they do is mentioned at all. In real life parents work all types of jobs. Calvin mom has been dating the same man for over a year. In real life divorced parents date. It's nice to see reality reflected in fiction.
The author writes a wonderfully complete story. Calvin Coconut is a great new series for early readers. Ages 7up
An excerpt
3 comments:
We have the first of these out from the library and Evan hasn't gotten around to it yet. He's just started reading chapter books on his own so it's slow going for him.
Ali - The first one is so much fun.
Thanks for the recommendation! I love the Hank Zipzer books, and this reminds me of them. I just requested this from my local library. We need early chapter books with humor that kids can see themselves in. Thanks!
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