146. Mercy Watson to the Rescue
Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamilloIllustrated by Chris Van Dusen
Mercy Watson, Book 1
Pages: 69
Ages: 5+
Finished: Aug. 14, 2009
First Published: 2005
Genre: children, humour
Rating: 5/5
First sentence:
Mr. Watson and Mrs. Watson have a pig named Mercy.
Reason for Reading: I was waiting until my son could read this series on his own but he's not there yet and if we wait any longer the stories will be too young for him. I have the newest book (#6) to review, so I thought we might as well start the series now from the beginning as a read aloud.
Comments: Mercy is the pet pig of the Watson's and they treat her just as if she was their child. One night as they are all sleeping in bed together, (Mercy is afraid of the dark) the bed starts to fall through the floor. The Watson's are stranded on the bed as it slowly sinks through the floor. Mercy jumps out of bed looking for her breakfast (or maybe to get help?) causing a rumpus as she goes and eventually the fire department is called out.
A delightful story! Really, I expected this to be fun but Mercy more than met my expectations. A really cute, funny story for up to about age 8 or 9. Perfect for children who can read but still need colourful pictures. The illustrations are wonderful! My son was especially taken by the facial expressions and laughed away with the story. My favourite character was Eugenia Lincoln, one of the elderly ladies who live next door, she believes pigs belong on farms. Ds liked her sister Baby Lincoln, simply because he couldn't get over the fact that an old lady was named Baby! Lots of fun. Don't let your kid's miss out on this series.
We'll be reading the rest of the series over the week but I'll only be doing one post with mini reviews of #2 through #5, then I'll give a full review of the newest book out.
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My daughter loved these books when she read them! I think there were only four in the series then so I'll have to keep a look-out for the new ones.
ReplyDeleteOh! Thanks for spotlighting this one. My nephew falls right into the category you mentioned - can read, but still "needs" colorful pictures. I'll probably pick up the first in the series tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteI think I will have to go to my library. This sounds like a fun series.
ReplyDeleteIs it Canadian?
Wanda - They always do that don't they. You think you'e finished a series and two years later you notice they've written more books!
ReplyDeleteGwendolyn - I hope the books work well for your nephew. It's a tricky stage to find books for.
Teddy - Sorry, nope, not Canadian. These are by the same author who wrote The Tale of Desperaux. (the Newbery winner some years ago, movie came out not too long ago) She's American anyway.