This is about an owl named Eva that is inviting all of her friend's to her slumber party! She is struggling with who and who not to invite and has to learn to solve the problem. This is a great book to introduce students to chapter reading. ( )

I am not an infallible judge of books. Evidence of this is my review of Owl Diaries when it first came out, back in 2015. I felt pretty "meh" about the first book, Eva's Treetop Festival. I'm here with the ninth book in the series and I freely admit that I was wrong.

In Eva's latest adventure, she is excited about her first sleepover. But when she takes her hatch-day shell to school for show and tell, she's upset by a careless comment from another owlet. Now she wishes she didn't have to invite Sue - but when Sue turns down her invitation she feels differently. With the help of her friends and family, will she be friends again with Sue and will they all have fun at her sleepover?

The story is in diary format on lined pages with a plethora of brightly colored illustrations. I'm sure all the kids have memorized which owl is which, but other than trying to remember that Eva is the one with the pink head and big blue circles around her eyes, I can't keep them straight. It's not as challenging as the more substantive Branches titles like Dragon Masters or Eerie Elementary, but it's a little more challenging than Boris. It is easy to follow the text and speech bubbles and the text is bold, if not large.

Do I still think that it's pretty stereotyped and formulaic? Yes. Does the endless drama give me a headache? Absolutely. Do kids love this to the point of literally fighting each other for copies? Oh yeah.

Verdict: I am now buying at least 4 copies of each new title and separating students (and siblings) as they each want their own copy! It seems to exactly hit the sweet spot for 2nd grade girls (I haven't run into any boys willing to read them) and they eagerly await each installment.

ISBN: 9781338163070; Published 2018 by Scholastic; Purchased 4 copies (paperback) for the library

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