Ellie's Lovely Idea

by Callie Barkley, Marsha Riti (Illustrator)

Overview

It’s Valentine’s Day, and The Critter Club is singing telegrams for charity—but will Ellie receive some of the love she is giving?

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and to raise money for a charity called Puppy Love, Ellie suggests that she and The Critter Club girls sell singing telegrams. The girls have a lot of fun writing and performing the songs, but all the holiday spirit makes Ellie wish someone would send her a singing telegram! Will Ellie get her wish?

With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, The Critter Clubchapter books are perfect for beginning readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442482197
Publisher:	Little Simon
Publication date:	12/03/2013
Series:	The Critter Club , #6
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.31(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	450L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Callie Barkley loves animals. As a young girl, she dreamed of getting a cat or dog of her own until she discovered she was allergic to most of them. It was around this time that she realized the world was full of all kinds of critters that could use some love. She now lives with her husband and two kids in Connecticut. They share their home with exactly ten fish and a very active ant farm.

Marsha Riti illustrated the picture book The Picky Little Witch. She lives in Austin, Texas, where she likes to take long walks, stopping frequently to pet neighborhood kitties.

Editorial Reviews

The Puppy Love charity needs funds to help families adopting puppies pay for veterinary care. With no stray pets to take care of in their neighborhood animal shelter, the Critter Club girls opt to turn their attention to raising funds to help Puppy Love. But how can four second graders make enough money to make a difference? “The Critter Club” friends are back in the series’ sixth book with a noble quest and determination to help others. While watching a classic, Shirley Temple-style movie with Nana Gloria, Ellie comes up with the idea of writing and delivering singing telegrams for Valentine’s Day as a way to raise money for Puppy Love. Ellie convinces Liz, Amy, and Marion to be her reluctant back-up singers, and after performing in front of the school at an assembly, business is booming for the quartet. Each girl contributes her strength to the project, from writing lyrics to selecting a tune to decorating the lyrics as a valentine. Everything is going well until their performance makes one lady burst into tears. Her pet bird is behaving strangely and she is worried. Critter Club to the rescue! With its old-fashioned charm, strong friendships, and age-appropriate problems, this sweet story is a treat sure to please beginning readers, especially younger children who are precocious readers. Large print, a table of contents, a generous amount of illustrations, and easy vocabulary support emerging literacy. Highly recommended for public and elementary school libraries. Reviewer: Keri Collins Lewis; Ages 5 to 10.

Children's Literature - Keri Collins Lewis