%% This is a multi-book review. SEE the title Arthur Makes the Team for next imprint and review text. %% (Reviewed August 1998)

Adapted by Stephen Krensky from teleplays for the PBS television series. The familiar characters in familiar situations have been successfully transformed into chapter books for younger readers. The predictable stories are illustrated with a few black-and-white drawings and have a lesson to teach, but Arthur, D.W., and the gang are their usual lively selves.

K-Gr 3--These two titles are part of a series of chapter-book novelizations of PBS's Arthur episodes. Even though the covers proclaim "A Marc Brown Arthur" and show a photograph of Brown on the jackets, the books themselves have been written by someone else, and are based on teleplays created by yet other authors. The texts are interspersed with black-and-white illustrations. Arthur and the Scare-Your-Pants-Off Club deals with an unusual theme for primary-grade audiences--censorship. Angry parents have demanded that a series of scary books be banned from the public library because they believe they are frightening their children, and Arthur and his friends decide to fight back. Arthur's Mystery Envelope concerns the young aardvark's curiosity and anxiety when the principal gives him an envelope to take home marked "PRIVATE and CONFIDENTIAL." His desire to be honest is tempered by his fear of negative consequences as he wrestles with the dilemma of whether to deliver the envelope or to "lose" it. The reading level of these books is problematic: the vocabulary exceeds that of average third graders, yet the audience of the Arthur show is usually much younger. They could be used as read-alouds, and would undoubtedly appeal to children who watch the program and to precocious younger readers.--Linda W. Tilden, Cherry Hill Library, NJ