RAPPY GOES TO THE SUPERMARKET

The reluctant rhyming, rapping dino has to be dragged to the supermarket by his mother, but maybe shopping isn’t so bad.

In this outing, Rappy saves the day with his rhymes when his mother forgets her shopping list: luckily, he made up a poem. Up and down the aisles they roam, Rappy’s attitude slowly changing as he sees all the goods on offer. The young dino even goes out of his way to be helpful, volunteering to find the toilet paper on his own. But the precarious tower of tissue comes tumbling down on his head, bringing the manager running: “You’re a pest. / You made a mess. / And now I’m feeling lots of stress. / I’m gonna scream and lose control, / Unless you pick up every roll!” Turns out Rappy is a born salesman, and in no time, he has shoppers coming to pick up something they all need: “But just in case you forgot ’em, / This is something for your bottom!” Gutman makes the move to early readers with this entry in the I Can Read! series, a level two (“reading with help”) that uses challenging vocabulary (“mosquito,” “cough,” “windshield,” “guaranteed”) and anywhere from four to nine lines of verse on each page, with Bowers’ illustrations serving to break up the text. Unfortunately, rhymes often feel forced and the scansion falters, making this a lackluster outing.

Kids practicing their reading skills deserve better.