PRINCESS POSEY AND THE PERFECT PRESENT

Posey loves everything about first grade, especially her beloved teacher, Miss Lee. Her best friends, Ava and Nikki, are in her class, and everyone is excited about Miss Lee’s birthday. They want to bring her just the right gift. First graders that they are, full of enthusiasm and love but not organization, they do not coordinate their gifts, and Posey is devastated to see that Nikki’s full bouquet of flowers completely upstages her little handful of roses. Greene (Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade, 2010) continues to get the social dynamic of first-grade girls perfect—the deep need to be loved by their teacher, the joy and confusion of friendships, the quick emotion and equally speedy forgiveness. New readers will recognize the situations and will smile when Posey bumbles her way back into Nikki’s good graces: “I’m sorry. I was being silly…You can use my kitty eraser today.” Very short chapters, generous font, lots of eye-saving white space on each page and frequent black-and-white illustrations make this longish early chapter book accessible to the very earliest reader. Posey is flawed in a way that is absolutely perfect. She struggles with her emotions and finds her way back with the help of her mother, teacher and small circle of buddies. Here’s hoping for more tales of Posey. (Fiction. 5-8)