My son has loved saying "Minerva Louise" since he first read about her in first grade. The name alone seems to grab the attention of that age group. Maybe it's fun to read such a unique name when other readers are using such simple names. The illustrations are bright and sharp, and the curious chicken is fun to follow. I think the kids also enjoy seeing so many familiar items from school and how Minerva assumes they are for farm animals. The design of the book is a bit dated, but I think it's a fun read and right on target for that early reader.

Minerva Louise is a chicken who ventures across a field and enters a school thinking it is a barn. She sees a person she believes is a farmer, a bucket she thinks is for feeding chickens, and blocks she presumes are the pen for pigs. After stumbling upon one classroom's student cubbies (which she thinks are nesting boxes), she is amazed at the variety of things in them. She then goes home and makes her own unique nesting box.

The story is clever and has nice pictures to accompany it. ( )

Love it when I can introduce my kids to great books. But in this case it was the other way around. We were at the library looking around for loot, when the kids shouted out 'how about Minerva Louise'. Who's that, I asked, and they insisted that I just get the book, that I would like it.

Well, they were so right. This is an adorable book with great artwork. As you can guess the story involves a chicken who goes to school. What you might not know is that the chicken, Minerva Louise, sees the school from her unique perspective. And the results are hilarious. She sees the school and concludes that it's one heck of a big, fancy barn. And she sees the children's storage cubbies and thinks... of course... nesting boxes!

We're going back to the library today and I'm going to track down all the other books in this series. Do consider it. Minerva Louise at School is a Good Read-a-Loud, that generates giggles and stimulates imagination.

Accelerated Reading Level = 1.7

Pam T~
mom and reviewer for BooksForKids-reviews ( )