This is #11 in the Black Lagoon series. According to online sources this series ranges in difficulty from Guided Reading level N-P . I’m shocked. I consider this to be more of an L-M – roughly a DRA 24-28 at most.
In The Snow Day from the Black Lagoon, Hubie explains all the reasons why he hates the snow, but then proceeds to have a pretty fun snow day.
The text in this book is large. HUGE. Therefore young readers will not be daunted by the number of words per page. It also has frequent illustrations which are in a cartoon-like style, not unlike Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The illustrations include lots of text as well, which is pretty cool because it lets you talk with your child about other kinds of writing, like labels and speech bubbles.
Verdict: I was a bit worried about this one. In third grade, I often use it to lure children who don’t love to read. But it’s so much better than I expected! It has nearly as much writing in the cartoons as it does for the actual text. Plus, it didn’t particularly rely on gross-out or bathroom humor in order to get its laughs. There wasn’t really much off-color in the whole thing, which is hugely different from many of it’s cartoon laden competitors (Captain Underpants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and it certainly didn’t have anything even vaguely sexual in nature.
Pros: Hey, who knew? The book was filled with similes and metaphors!
Sex, Nudity, Dating – None.
Profanity – “hate”
Death, Violence and Gore – The front cover illustration shows a pointy toothed snowman about to eat a child.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – None.
