~ borrowed from the Library

KATY DUCK AND THE TIP-TOP TAP SHOES is at the 1st Grade Reading Level. This book has 266 words in a VERY large kid-friendly font.

Now I've only read two books in the KATY DUCK series and I definitely like this one better. The story is about the new girl in ballet class. To everyone's surprise the new duck, Alice, is wearing tap shoes. And like Katy loves her tutu and ballet shoes, Alice Duck looooves her tap shoes. And Katy thinks they're cool too.

The teacher however thinks they are inappropriate, which creates a dilemma, which Katy solves!

I love the compassion that Katy shows for Alice and the fact that the two share their love of dance. Positive messages all around. Now for text...

What surprised me about the book was the vocabulary. I checked two sources to confirm that this was indeed a book at the First Grade Reading level. Here's some sample text from two pages:

Tap! Tap! Tap!
It was Alice Duck!
Alice Duck had tap shoes.

The tap shoes were black.
They were very shiny.
They made tapping sounds!
Tap! Tap! Tap!


On one level it's great practice as you have variations of words for children to practice with. You have TAP and TAPPING, for example. There just seem to be a lot of adjectives. But try it and see.