Easy Reader Series Series: Sir Ladybug

I always say, I don’t want to write the “next great American novel,” I just want to write a stupidly successful Easy Reader series. I’ve been trying to read more Easy Readers recently, and so I’m going to write up some blog posts about Easy Reader Series I read, especially when I read…all of them. Today, we have a new series by Geisel winning Corey R Tabor, called, Sir Ladybug! There are 3 so far (all talked about below) and

These easy readers are interesting, because they are marketed as explicitly “graphic novel series” but also pretty clearly easy readers as well. I’ll be interested to see how libraries shelve it. They are told in panel-style, and great for read-alouds and those who love dialogue driven easy readers like Elephant and Piggie. The illustration style is light and fun, and it’s full of puns and jokes–even one for adults. Not as in “adult jokes” but jokes such as “Float like him, sting like me” said from a bumblee standing next to a butterfly that might go over the average 6 year old’s head.

Each book does have “chapters” which can help developing readers build their confidence in longer titles, and I’m pretty impressed with this series so far! I might add Sir Ladybug to my Halloween costume roster next year.

Sir Ladybug (1)

In the debut of this series, we meet our protagonist, Sir Ladybug, a brave and noble knight but also kind of ordinary ladybug who is accompanied by a rolly polly squire who loves to help pump his friend up to do great deeds. In this one, they face off against a large, hungry snail to save a fellow bug and find unity through cake.

Sir Ladybug and the Queen Bee (2)

Back to work for Sir Ladybug–who is summoned to court to meet the Queen Bee, who turns out to be a major bully. He ends up trying to serve in her regiment while his friends are locked in Bee Jail, but once again, they are able to escape the perils of the plot and teach the bully queen a lesson about empathy and being the better person.

Sir Ladybug and the Bookworms (3)

In this installment, Sir Ladybug goes on a quest to return his library book before it is overdue and encounters a lot of bugs who need his help and three bookworms who want to steal his book to eat it. Ultimately, of course, they prevail and get to the library in the turtle and share the love of libraries. I was a little nervous at first because I HATE books that try to make “overdue books” or “library fees” an actual fear in children’s lives, especially since so many libraries are going finee free, but this mostly avoided it. This book has a fake “excerpt” from the library book they borrowed that is a very funny Kafka parody, which is definitely for the adult reader reading alongside the developing reader. s