Genre: Fiction, Anthropomorphic animals
Protagonists: Primarily female; Animals
Reading level: 500-600s; M
Series: Currently at 19 books with a 20th to be released fall 2024
Originally reviewed in 2018
Review:
I am not an infallible judge of books. Evidence of this is my review of Owl Diaries when it first came out, back in 2015. I felt pretty "meh" about the first book, Eva's Treetop Festival. I'm here with the ninth book in the series and I freely admit that I was wrong.In Eva's latest adventure, she is excited about her first sleepover. But when she takes her hatch-day shell to school for show and tell, she's upset by a careless comment from another owlet. Now she wishes she didn't have to invite Sue - but when Sue turns down her invitation she feels differently. With the help of her friends and family, will she be friends again with Sue and will they all have fun at her sleepover?
The story is in diary format on lined pages with a plethora of brightly colored illustrations. I'm sure all the kids have memorized which owl is which, but other than trying to remember that Eva is the one with the pink head and big blue circles around her eyes, I can't keep them straight. It's not as challenging as the more substantive Branches titles like Dragon Masters or Eerie Elementary, but it's a little more challenging than Boris. It is easy to follow the text and speech bubbles and the text is bold, if not large.
Do I still think that it's pretty stereotyped and formulaic? Yes. Does the endless drama give me a headache? Absolutely. Do kids love this to the point of literally fighting each other for copies? Oh yeah.
Verdict: I am now buying at least 4 copies of each new title and separating students (and siblings) as they each want their own copy! It seems to exactly hit the sweet spot for 2nd grade girls (I haven't run into any boys willing to read them) and they eagerly await each installment.
Revisited: Now an apple tv show, the kids, still primarily girls, still eagerly await each new title although I now only buy two copies. With more kids struggling to read, I have more 3rd and 4th graders reading the series now.
ISBN: 9781338163070; Published 2018 by Scholastic; Purchased 4 copies (paperback) for the library
ISBN: 9781338163070; Published 2018 by Scholastic; Purchased 4 copies (paperback) for the library
1 comment:
My seven year old daughter absolutely loves these books (she's always been a fan of cutesy owls). I find them not too terrible to read aloud to her unlike other formulaic books. Also, at least Eva is actually a kind owl and a good friend. When I had them in my library I had at least one boy who checked them out, maybe two. That diary format is a big drawl thanks, I think, to Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
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