The Horn Book Guide

EASY READERS

Pearce, Emily Smith

Slowpoke

40 pp. | Boyds | October, 2010 | Trade ISBN 978-1-59078-705-2 $16.95

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Scot Ritchie. Fiona is a slowpoke. She habitually misses the bus because she eats her cereal bits one by one and brushes each tooth thirty-two times. Her family, fed up, sends her to "Speed School." Readers may get a kick out of Fiona's newly acquired multitasking skills, shown in Ritchie's humorous black-and-white cartoon illustrations, but the story's stop-and-smell-the-roses message is aimed squarely at helicopter parents.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz