Angelina Ballerina Loves the Library: Ready-to-Read Level 1

K-Gr 2–Angelina returns with the seventh in a series of early readers based on the original picture books. The ballet-obsessed mouse can’t wait to check out “more and more” books when she visits the Chipping Cheddar library, but the librarian explains that she can only borrow five at a time. After making her selection, Angelina returns home to share the bounty with delighted friends and family. Then she’s back to the library for a second round! Despite the book’s being described as a “level one reader,” newly minted readers may have a hard time navigating overly wordy sentences containing few contextual clues and some hard-to-decode, three-syllable words. The plot lacks zip, but interesting details abound in the delicate and familiar ink and watercolor style illustrations of a quaint English village populated by adorable mice. The updated story still adheres completely to the traditional gender roles of the original, with Angelina’s mom in the kitchen, dad in a comfortable chair reading the newspaper, and a female ballet teacher and librarian.