Review: Hooray for the Golly Sisters

By Betsy Byars; Illustrated by Sue Truesdell

HarperCollins; 1990; 64 pages

Easy Reader; Short Chapter; Series

Grades: K-2

ISBN: 0-06-020899-6

May-May and Rose continue in their quest to become vaudeville stars in the Wild, Wild, West.

My Thoughts:
I had not realized that there were additional installments of the Golly Sisters series. My sister and I had the first one when we were younger. We enjoyed them because the sisters were blonde and brunette (like us), and May-May was similar to our last name. (Also, Golly was a word that we were not allowed to say as children, so we felt like we were being naughty whenever we read it.) When I came across this second volume, I immediately picked it up. I think that, as far as easy readers go, it is a great book. Is it great literature? No. Is it very interesting to me as a 25 year old? No. Would I recommend it to a 6 year old who is just starting to read independently? Absolutely.

The text was clearly laid out, with a limited number of words per page. It would not be overwhelming to young readers. The book contains multiple stories to give readers the feel of chapters without actually using a chapter system. Also, the vocabulary was limited, with many words being repeated multiple times throughout the work to build up recognition and confidence. I appreciated the amount of dialog that was present. Many easy readers seem to be more expository. The conversations help move the story along, but also teach kids to recognize the punctuation cues and learn to follow dialog. The pictures do a good job of illustrating the story, and help decode the text. As is important with easy readers though, the pictures on their own do not tell the story. The text has to be read in conjunction to understand what is going on. This may be an older book, but it still holds up!

The Thoughts of Others:
Sharron McElmeel, for School Library Journal, pointed out that the "varying levels of humor make the title appealing to slightly older, less able readers as well." This is important because some older readers are embarassed to be seen reading easy read books. The faux chapter system and subject matter will encourage them.

Kirkus Reviews 1990 look at the book extolled the illustrations over the text. They felt that "Truesdell's zany characterizations and lively humor almost steal the show."