Review: Circle C Beginnings, Books 3 & 4
You may remember my review from a few months ago of the new Circle C Beginnings series for young readers. Megan absolutely loved the first two books, Andi’s Pony Trouble and Andi’s Indian Summer.
When she finished those two books, Megan could hardly wait for the next two in the series. I mean, really. As in, she asked me at least once a week when they were coming out.
She finished the first two in December. The next two weren’t scheduled to be released until March.
Once a week she asked me about them. No, I’m not exaggerating.
So, we were thrilled when I emailed author Susan Marlow in February, about something else entirely, and discovered that the next two books had been released early! Susan was so sweet. When she discovered that Megan had been hounding me asking regularly about the books’ release date, she graciously sent me the next two books out of her personal stash.
Megan started them immediately and she loved them both as much as she loved the first two.
In Andi’s Fair Surprise, six-year-old Andi takes her first trip to the California State Fair by way of her first train ride. If you’ve read any of the Andi books, you know that she found some trouble to get into. Whether she’s taking “her” spending money off the table at the restaurant – and later learning what a tip is – or winning a prize at the fair and having her brother tell her no way can she keep it, Andi’s trip doesn’t lack for adventure.
The fourth book, Andi’s Scary School Days, is about Andi’s first experience at school. It’s hard to believe, with all the mishaps involved, that this story only spans Andi’s first two days of school. She sure does learn a lot about rules, punishments, and words like tardy. She does, however, finally learn that school is a pretty fun place to be.
What Megan likes best about the Circle C Beginnings series is that “they’re really fun to read and Andi is really funny.” The thing I like best is that they’ve given her the confidence to tackle other chapter books.
Before reading the Circle C books, she was really intimidated by chapter books. Now, she’s checking them out of the library and buying them from the used book store. The Circle C Beginnings books have helped Megan become a confident reader.
In addition to loving the books, Megan loves all the activity and coloring pages (that’s Megan in the picture) available on the Andi and Taffy site. Seriously, I’m going to have to star charging that kid for printer ink. That’s okay, though. She doesn’t realize that the activity pages are educational. Shhhh…don’t tell her.
If you’ve never taken a look at the Circle C Beginnings series, you can visit the website to see the official book trailer, narrated by the author’s very own granddaughter. I just love listening to her talk. She sounds so much like I imagine Andi sounding.
You can find all the Circle C Beginnings books on the author’s website for just $15.96, plus shipping and handling for the whole set of four or $4.99, plus shipping and handling for each.
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
These look really interesting. What is the reading level?
They're geared for kids ages 6-8(ish). Megan is 9 and I'd say she's on a solid 3rd grade reading level.
We received Andi's Indian Summer for review a while back. My son really liked it! Generally speaking he is a Magic Tree House only child, but he branched out for the purpose of the review. I wasn't aware of any coloring sheets. I'll have to go check that out. Thanks.
I just ordered my daughter the set of 6. She's going to love them! Thanks for the tip.
I hope she enjoys them as much as Megan does. Megan loves them!
they look cute for girls, I have 3 boys though haha. My son 6 just gets into reading books with less pictures then the level 3-4 and since I'm not originally from the states I don't know many series but we're very frequent visitors at the library. So far we found henry and mudge, geronimo stilton, the magic tree house… I really like these books that come in series.