LILY AND THE MIXED-UP LETTERS

A rather shallow treatment of reading difficulties is the focus of Hodge’s second work of fiction. Lily’s strength is her artistic ability, but in second grade, the emphasis is on reading, and Lily just can’t get the hang of it as “letters dance and blur in front of her eyes.” After her teacher announces that the students will be reading a page aloud on Parent’s Day, Lily finally confides in her mother. Lily’s friend Grace becomes her reading buddy, while Lily helps Grace with her painting. Lily practices her page, almost to the exclusion of all else, making songs out of the words, repeating them over and over and drawing them in the air. When it is her turn, she makes some mistakes and isn’t as fast or as smooth as the other kids, but she reads the whole page and fairly beams with pride. Brassard’s lifelike watercolors tenderly show Lily’s every emotion as she struggles with learning to read. But ultimately, Hodge’s text is missing the depth and feeling of Patricia Polacco’s Thank You, Mr. Falker (1998). (Picture book. 6-8)