Dot the Ladybug: The Perfect Spot

K-Gr 1–Overconfident dot-spotter Dot dashes off to fulfill her mouse friend Jots’s request for a spot. She encounters pointy things, "stripy" things, and other misdirection, but ultimately remembers that “Sometimes a spot isn’t a dot”—the word “spot” can also mean “place” as well as “dot.” The premise is classic and the illustrations are clean and fun, but the pacing and rhythm feel a little off, and the jump between rhyme, internal rhyme, and nonrhyming sentences can be jarring, as in “‘Wait,’ says Jots. ‘Dot?’ Too late. Off Dot trots.” While the formula of mixing internal rhymes can be fun, the unpredictability of the rhyme scheme and pacing might also be daunting to early readers seeking the rock of repetition. Some of the harder words (“stripy”) and the liberal use of apostrophes go against the early reader’s simple mission.