Stuart Sets Sail (I Can Read Book 1)

PreSchool-Grade 2-These two beginning readers are based on incidents from the movie Stuart Little, which took its name from the book, but basically that's all. In one story, the little mouse climbs into a vase while hiding from a cat, but then needs the help of the feline to get free. In the second book, Stuart has an adventure with a large fish and a turtle while piloting a toy boat across a park lake. Both are in an accessible, easy-reader format with large type and colorful pictures based on the movie, but they are a poor relation to E. B. White's famous Stuart Little (HarperCollins, 1945). Neither "adventure" is from the original book, so why steal the stars? It is blatant commercialism to take a famous character and a few familiar details (the names of the boat and the cat) and put them in watered-down scenarios. These offerings are a disservice to children's literature and to its readers.
Nancy A. Gifford, Schenectady County Public Library, NY
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