Moll, Lone Pine Elementary School, West Bloomfield, MIĬopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. More informative and geared toward a slightly older audience than Shen Roddie's Chicken Pox (Little, 1993), this book is likely to be picked up by parents of sufferers.ĭenise L. The borders on each page reflect the progression of the disease-benign at the beginning and end of the book, but filled with ever-larger, then diminishing spots throughout the middle. Kelley's cartoon-style line drawings, washed in watercolors, are vibrant and appealing and have interesting details. The story is competently written in a casual, conversational style, sprinkled with kidicisms such as 'yuck' and 'gross.' However, the 'Pox Facts,' tidbits of information that line the bottom of each spread, are intended for older readers or adults. But at the end of the week she is able to go back to school, a semi-celebrity, where she recounts the highlights of her experience to her friends. The itchy spots are barely tolerable and she is bored. Kindergarten-Grade 2-Although the young narrator is excited at first about staying home from school, drinking ginger ale, and eating ice cream, the novelty of chicken pox soon wears off. Ages 4-7.Ĭopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Both books, however, will reassure-and bring on smiles. Kelley offers as entertaining a story line as does Brown, and the factual details she provides make this book a better choice for a youngster feeling apprehensive about chicken pox. Like the hero of Marc Brown's Arthur's Chicken Pox (reviewed below), this pox victim has a sibling torturer: her brother proclaims her first spot 'a cootie bite' and messily devours a piece of chocolate fudge cake in front of her however, he isn't altogether disdainful and pays her a dime to breathe on him. As the days pass, the impatient patient misses her classmates-and even tires of TV and Jell-O ('I'm not sick of ice cream and ginger ale, though'). But the following day, when she comes down with a fever and a sore throat, she is far less sanguine. No school! I can stay in my pajamas all week !'). When she realizes what the spots on her body mean, the child is at first elated ('Yay!.

In this upbeat amalgam of the imaginative and the informational, Kelley's ( Let's Eat ) humorously illustrated, jaunty tale of a girl who contracts chicken pox is accompanied by concise 'pox facts' displayed across the bottom of every spread.

I've Got Chicken Pox by True Kelley