Dear Dragon's Fun with Shapes

K-Gr 1—These titles offer new episodes in Hillert's classic series about a little boy and his dragon sidekick. These releases may attract another generation to the books, though some new packaging might have been used to update the oddly old-fashioned illustrations with a livelier style for today's audience. Nonetheless, Hillert captures timeless experiences and dilemmas for young children: the concept of recognizing shapes, the problem of searching for a missing person or object, and the pleasure of playtime with good friends. The stories are vehicles for reading instruction, focusing on high-frequency sight words and also on increasing phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Each book includes word lists and exercises for a child to try with an adult partner. Unfortunately, Shapes reads, "I can walk on these squares" while the walking path is composed exclusively of rectangles. Purchase if materials for emergent readers are in demand or if the older Hillert titles have a faithful following.—Gloria Koster, West School, New Canaan, CT