Reviewed with Paula Danziger's Get Ready for Second Grade, Amber Brown .Gr. 1-3. Worried because the new second-grade teacher really wants to teach in high school and calls elementary school kids knee biters, Amber and her friends anticipate the worst in Get Ready . Ms. Light, however, turns out to be as bright as her name and as wonderful as Ms. Frizzle and Lilly's Mr. Slinger. In Fair Day Amber plans to have a perfect day as she and her parents go to a county fair along with her friend Justin and his family. Upset by her parents' constant arguing, Amber wanders off, becomes lost, and is soon found. Cotton candy, riding the merry-go-round, and winning prizes turn Amber's Fair Day into an almost-perfect day. Although told with Danziger's characteristic humor, both books portray very real situations, fears, and apprehensions that new readers will readily recognize. They will admire Amber's spirit and spunk, laugh at the wordplay and, like second-grade Amber, soon be ready for chapter books.

Readers join Amber Brown as she begins second grade and as she spends a day at the county fair with her parents and her best friend Justin's family. As always, life for Amber is mixed--wonderful moments are tempered with worries. Danziger's lively prose accompanied by Ross's cartoons make these books as easy to read as they are easy to like. [Review covers these A Is for Amber titles: Get Ready for Second Grade, Amber Brown and It's a Fair Day, Amber Brown.]

<p>It's always a fair day or better with the irrepressible Amber Brown around. In this third addition to the easy reader A Is for Amber series, Danziger (Get Ready for Second Grade, Amber Brown, above, etc.) sends Amber and her best friend Justin off to the Poconos (or Poke-a-Nose, in Amber-speak) with their families on vacation. Amber's parents have been fighting (in back-story development that foreshadows their divorce in the Amber stories for older readers), and she hopes that will stop and everyone will have a perfect day at the county fair. They all have fun on the rides, but another parental fight erupts, and Amber, feeling lost and rejected, really does get lost when she tries to find Justin's happier family. Her parents see that their fighting has hurt their child, and the tension is resolved in a satisfying conclusion with some tears, hugs, and a teddy-bear prize from Amber's dad to her mom. Ross provides her usual cheerful and humorous illustrations in watercolor and ink, with lots of funny faces from the children. Danziger shows her usual deft touch with childhood feelings and family dynamics, adding another original story with genuine humor and emotion to the growing chronicle of Amber's life. (Easy reader. 5-9)</p>

Gr 1-3 The characters in these prequels for beginning readers lose nothing from their original portrayals in the longer books for older children. In Get Ready , Danziger effortlessly guides young Amber through an encounter with the unknown as a second grader. The child confesses her fearswill her new teacher give "seven hours of homework?What if she's an alien from some foreign planet?" A ray of light shines on her as she begins classMs. Light. The woman calms worries with ease, and the "Bright Lights" include all of her students, in particular a newly confident Amber. Childlike conversations and humor capture the highlights of the school day. In the second title, a trip to a county fair includes the Browns and the family of Amber's friend Justin Daniels, but all is not well between her mother and father. The author's gift for characterization places Amber's emotions before readers; an escape from the tensions between her parents creates a potentially dangerous moment when she loses her way at the fair. The book's puns and kid-oriented humor target a serious topic with childlike truthfulness and simplified text. In both books, Ross's watercolor-and-pen illustrations emphasize the action and emotions. Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX