chapter book series for my four-year-old, chunk 1: Moongobble, Sly the Sleuth, & Catwings

We’re working through those book ideas and enjoying ourselves thoroughly! I’ve decided to report on that reading in a series of quick reviews, so perhaps some of you can benefit from our exploration as well.

Bruce Coville, The Dragon of Doom (2003), The Weeping Werewolf (2004), The Evil Elves (2004), and The Mischief Monster (2007)

• the basic idea: Boy meets incompetent but kindly magician. Adventures, in the form of one quest per book, ensue.
• pros: These books are really quite a lot of fun. They’re pretty well-written and work very well read aloud (Noah doesn’t read yet, so that’s what’s happening with all these books right now). They’re funny, and the plots move along with some tension and intrigue but never actually become scary. We’re happy to have found some fantasy books that don’t scare the crap out of our magic-fascinated but sensitive child. Also, I like that people are basically nice in this series.
• cons: The only female character who appears in multiple books is the protagonist’s mother, who does nothing but cook, clean, and worry. Would it have killed Coville to make, say, the dragon or the frog (or, gasp!, the protagonist or the magician) female, or to think about the mother as a real character? Really? Also, there’s a cheap compulsion-to-reunite-the-nuclear-family plot twist in The Weeping Werewolf. Major eye roll.
• the verdict: Certainly worth reading.
• more in the series: The Naughty Nork

Ursula Le Guin, Catwings (1988), Catwings Return (1989), and Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings (1994)

• the basic idea: Cats. With wings. You know, like, flying cats.
• pros: I cannot tell you how beautifully written and interesting (from both adult and child perspectives) these books are. I also love the illustrations (by S. D. Schindler). The stories and characters are great. Unlike most children’s books (and movies, etc.), these books’ treatment of nonhuman animals is realistic and matter-of-fact. (And yes, I do realize that cats don’t have wings.) Carnivorous animals in these stories attack and eat other animals, but not because they’re villainous or mean–they’re just carnivorous animals. The winged cats are in a certain amount of danger because they’re weird. Humans come in kind and cruel varieties, and the catwings are rightly suspicious of humans but know how to love the right ones. Oh, and there are female and male cats, and a human boy and girl, who are all equally well-developed characters rather than walking/flying gender stereotypes!
• cons: These would have upset Noah a year ago–there are genuinely scary parts and some darkness. But they’re perfect little jewels of books, and I don’t have anything bad to say about them. I would read them just for my own pleasure, sans Noah.
• the verdict: Awesomesauce.
• more in the series: Jane on Her Own

Donna Jo Napoli, Sly the Sleuth and the Pet Mysteries (2005)

• the basic idea: Girl sets herself up as a private investigator and solves three separate mysteries per book.
• pros: The mysteries manage to be simple enough for Noah to understand but reasonably interesting and amusing. Also, they’re utterly non-scary. Although the stories aren’t gorgeous, they’re well-written enough that reading them aloud is painless. Sly is a girl, and that’s not the point of the story–it never feels as though these are ‘stories for girls’ or like we’re supposed to think ‘ooh, weird, a girl detective!’
• cons: I dunno; I just didn’t love it. Noah listened along but rarely requested this one, and it took us forever to finish it. Maybe we were both a little bored by the language and the plot? The children in these stories are considerably older than Noah but not as old as the grown-ups he knows, which probably didn’t help its case with us. I didn’t find the characters particularly compelling.
• the verdict: Okay.
• more in the series: Sly the Sleuth and the Sports Mysteries, Sly the Sleuth and the Food Mysteries, Sly the Sleuth and the Code Mysteries