Small Readers: Tip and Tucker: Road Trip by Ann Ingalls and Sue Lowell Gallion, illustrated by Andre Ceolin

I was interested when I saw this coming out - Sue Gallion has done some fun things, but I was too busy at the time (also, I felt the publisher may have only seen my reviews and not my inappropriate hamster stories, which my previous staff are not around to curtail. Heh.)

Tucker and Tip are two hamsters. Tucker likes new things, Tip does not. When Mr. Lopez visits the pet sore, Rosa helps him choose a pet and he picks Tip and Tucker! What will their new home be like? Tip and Tucker speculate about their new home, which turns out to be something called a school. What will school be like? They'll find out tomorrow!

Sweet, friendly illustrations show two fuzzy hamsters, their pet store, and the busy classroom they are moved to, full of fun things to discover and explore. Mr. Lopez is light-skinned and wears glasses; he sprinkles some Spanish into his conversation. Rosa, the only person at the pet store, has darker skin and wears a red tunic with gold embroidery. There's not much plot in this set-up; presumably the two have lots of adventures ahead of them.

I appreciate that the publisher put a range of reading levels on the back - guided reading level (K), Lexile (270) and ATOS as well as word count. Publisher reading levels vary so much that it's very difficult for teachers, parents, and librarians to sort easy readers into reading levels. (for my thoughts on that, you can see this earlier post)

Verdict: A nice start for an easy reader series, with promises of Hispanic characters which I am looking for. I will be interested in seeing how the series continues.

ISBN: 9781534110069; Published 2019 by Sleeping Bear Press; Borrowed from another library in my consortium