Pet Fancy Dress Party

Gwendolyn Hooks has written many books including If You Were A Kid During the Civil Rights Movement, The Cat Food Mystery, and Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas, for which she received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature. She is the recipient of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Crystal Kite Award and her book  Block Party  is a Junior Library Guide selection. Gwendolyn resides in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Andy and his pet goldfish are having a Halloween party and need costumes. They move through various choices but the fact that Nibbles can’t talk complicates matters. Ultimately, Andy does all of the brainstorming and the fish uses creative nonverbal methods to add her two cents. Throw in the bow on the top of her head and how she deadpans her displeasure, and Nibbles steals the show. Byrne’s vibrant cartoon drawings offer gentle humor to Hooks’s giggle-worthy story. Basic vocabulary combined with dialogue and slightly more complex sentence structures will help stretch beginning readers while keeping them engaged with the familiar. An excellent addition to most collections.