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Book review: Katie Woo's Neighborhood series

Katie Woo's Neighborhood: Good morning, Farmer Carmen!
Katie Woo's Neighborhood: Helping Mayor Patty
Katie Woo's Neighborhood: Katie's vet loves pets
Katie Woo's Neighborhood: Open wide, Katie!

Written by Fran Manushkin
Published by Picture Window Books/Capstone
Beginning reader chapter books

These level J beginning readers feature Katie meeting community helpers (farmer, mayor, veterinarian, dentist) and learning a little about their daily work. Elementary students learning about communities in social studies will enjoy these age-appropriate realistic fiction introductions, which would pair well with a nonfiction source like a PBS Learning Media video clip from the "Meet the helpers" or "Kids Clubhouse" series, or an online encyclopedia article.

Katie helps harvest fresh vegetables for a farmer's market, enjoying the taste of just picked tomatoes. She adopts a stray kitten she finds in her neighborhood, after getting help nursing the kitten back to health. She visits the dentist for a checkup and practices brushing her teeth. She attends a town hall meeting and weighs the suggestions from citizens, sorting needs and wants, and watches the city council prioritize the suggestions and vote to allocate money for them.

Each book opens with a map of the community which includes a compass rose. The characters are racially diverse and some wear hijabs or turbans or use canes or braces. Katie herself has golden skin, shiny black short hair, and wears glasses. The simple stories depict scenes which will be familiar to many students from personal experience (seeing a stray animal) and scenes which are part of many lower elementary curricular units (local government, growing vegetables, dental hygiene). Each volume contains a table of contents, a glossary, reading questions, and an interview with the community helper.

Swap out dated Clifford or Curious George readers for these fresher volumes.

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