How do you make an excellent pizza even better, or at least maintain the same level of quality at a different location? Jasper Rabbit has that issue. The three illustrated book in Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales had they problem when they were initially released, but more on that in a moment. Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales! Troubling Tonsils! has the same spirit as those now classic illustrated books, but ups the demographic. This is a chapter book aimed at those early elementary age students who were, just yesterday laughing at Creepy Carrots! or Creepy Pair of Underwear! Can Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown corroborate on a chapter book as cohesively as they did previously?
Yes, the creepy, age-appropriate silly sense of dread is wholly on display in Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales! Troubling Tonsils!. Troubling Tonsils! has the potential to be a kid’s first chapter book series. That field is currently controlled, at least in the boy’s sphere by Press Start, Dinosaur Club and Magic Treehouse. Elementary boys who are just starting to read chapter books need something sillier than what girls read. Is it because they’re lazier, conforming to peer pressure or simply don’t have enough engaging texts?
Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales! nullifies that final argument. Troubling Tonsils! is the first book in the Creepy Tales chapter book series. There are two more books planned, and based on how entertaining this one is, it’s a safe bet those first or second graders will have the series around for years. It’s a nice balance of very silly, to silly scary, a shifting perspective of silliness, to darkly comic silliness. Are you sensing the tone that Troubling Tonsils has throughout it?
Troubling Tonsils is a chapter book. Each chapter is approximately seven pages long with at least two full-page illustrations. There are a couple of chapters that have more pictures and all of the pages have the content enclosed by a rectangular border. This effect gives readers the impression that they’re witnessing the story from the perspective of the narrator. That is a very clever device because Troubling Tonsils is introduced by Jasper Rabbit, who is doing his best impersonation of Rod Serling from The Twilight Zone.
But I don’t know who that is, you might say to yourself, in a way to carry water for kids who don’t want to read. All you need to know is the fact that Jasper Rabbit introduces readers to Charlie Marmot, our main character. Charlie has to get his tonsils taken out. He’s momentarily scared and put off from the process because it’s an ‘operation’. However, he’s back on board when he finds out that he can eat lots of ice cream, and can bring his tonsils into school for show-and-tell.
He has picked out a great glass jar that’s big enough for two-hundred tonsils. The thought of his friends possibly barfing when they see his gushy glands is making him giddy. The operation goes smoothly, without any issues. When he’s recovering at home, it’s great, until he wakes up on his desk and his tonsils are not in the jar. Charlie goes through the next day very sleepy in a daze. He’s rewarded the next night with a restful sleep and in the morning is stirred by a voice egging him to “get up.” Everything looks different and he realizes his whole world is upside down.
If the story seems too simple, that’s because we left out some nice curve balls that are in Troubling Tonsils. Just like The Twilight Zone, if you know the Macguffin, then weaving your way the creepy set-up is much less fun.
And Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales! Troubling Tonsils is fun. It is a different kind of fun than Creepy Carrots! Creepy Crayon! or Creepy Pair of Underwear!. Those are picture-driven, illustrated books, whose key audience is not going to be able to read yet. They’ll use a brevity of words and rely on the illustrations to fill the imagination of toddler through kindergarten kids. The early reader chapter books are for ages six through nine. They’re complemented with illustrations that make the paragraphs palatable to emerging readers who might be intimidated by a concept of chapters or paragraphs.
But this is fun, you’ll tell them. As a read aloud chapter book it allows for the staccato pacing and erratic volume that can make reading an age-appropriate scary book so much fun the young readers. The creepy vibe, in addition to its short chapters, makes it a fun book to read out loud as well as, to read. Previously, those emerging readers might’ve only experienced ‘fun’ with books during carpet time or when the guest reader shows up. There are a couple of three syllable words in the book that younger readers may require help with. Every second grader should be able to read it. Moreover, every first grader will enjoy it and look forward to the next Creepy Tale that they read.
Jasper Rabbit’s Creepy Tales! Troubling Tonsils! is by Aaron Reynolds with illustrations by Peter Brown and is available on Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
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