"Garfield by the Pound" is one of those longer than tall books. Its 8.3 x 5.2 inches and it contains some 128 pages of the daily black and white strips from the beloved series.

That said, I am reviewing "Garfield by the Pound" for use by children since our library, and I assume others, are including it in their kid-sections.

Talking Points :::

o The Accelerated reading level is given as a generic "4"; which means that it is on the 4th Grade level with no specific month given.

o And we might start with the 4th Grade as a place to try to estimate the lower end of the interest range for this book. But because children vary so much in how-and-when the humor section of their brain turns on it's difficult to say with any accuracy when they might be ready for it. My 7 year-old son, for example, thought it was hysterical, while my 9 year-old daughter was less enthusiastic, liking some of the humor, finding other bits of no interest.

o From a mom-point-of-view, I have to say that there is a small amount of objectionable material, particularly for very young readers. I mean at one point John turns to a salesmen and says 'excuse me while I kill my cat'. So if your children are too young for such hyperbole consider this a warning. Otherwise, of course, there is little that is untoward. No bad language that I saw, or 'adult situations'.

My advice then would be to let them find it at the library themselves. And if they like it and you have no objection to a little gentle cartoon violence let them check it out. Library Find!

Pam T~
mom and reviewer for BooksForKids-review.com

741.5