With Halloween right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to talk ghosts. Not scary and creepy ghosts but rather friendly and personable ghosts that make you rethink everything you thought you knew about ghosts. Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story takes you to traditionally spooky locations and situations but does so in a lighthearted way that is anything but scary even for young readers.
My 9-year-old niece (Grade 4) helped me review this since I don’t have a young reader yet, and she was really excited about the premise of a friendly ghost. The story is about a 9-year-old girl named Katie who moves into a new home and hears laughter. After a few days in which she receives small presents unexpectedly in her new home, Katie finds out the laughter belongs to a 10-year-old ghost named Kimble. Surprisingly, Katie is not the least bit scared of Kimble and instead is excited to have a friend in her new house.
The book chronicles the adventures of the two and how they become great friends. My niece was admittedly a bit on the older side for the book since it is recommended for kids ages 7-10, or younger if the book is being read aloud to them. She has been reading chapter books for years now and reads at an extremely high level for her age, but since she still fell in the age range I thought she would be perfect to help me review it.
She said at first the book seemed a little choppy and she thought the writing was too childish for her, but as she read more she ended up liking the story and getting interested in the characters. She thinks that kids ages 4-6 could most likely read the book as well, or have it read to them since the book was a really easy read. She thought 10 was too old since she read the book front to back in an hour, but as I said, she’s a fast reader. After reading it myself and knowing what books I was reading at each grade level, I would probably offer Katie & Kimble to readers as young as 6 who are just learning how to read chapter books and see how they do.
I must admit I was a bit skeptical about this book the first time I saw it. Mostly, it was because of the cover art, which I have to say I’m not really a fan of. Not that it really matters since clearly I’m not the target audience for the book, and isn’t there some sort of saying about not judging a book by its cover, anyway? But, I did really like that the book was about something very different than I had seen before and the opportunities were huge to engage in good discussions with your kids (or niece, as the case may be) about the topics brought up in the book.
I really liked that the main character, Katie, was an upbeat and positive personality. She was a wonderful big sister to her two-year-old brother and a very independent and responsible role model for young children (excepting the fact that she did, at one point, disobey her parent’s rule on going into the forest even though it was for a good reason). I am excited to see how Katie grows in the second book in the series and what more is revealed about her personality.
Kimble, the ghost of the story, also seemed like she could develop into a strong character as well, but there were a few times I was a bit put off by her during the story. Two different times in the book Kimble is said to be laughing at something I didn’t find funny at all, in fact, one of the times I thought laughter would be downright rude. I think the character of Kimble is just developing (she only really emerges around the middle of the book) and I think subsequent books will show even more about her personality and hopefully will ease my concerns.
You should check out the official Katie & Kimble blog for even more information on the Katie & Kimble series, but be sure to turn the sound down on your computer first – I jump every time the audio begins to play on the blog. There are tons of free activities to download from the right sidebar of the site, like videos, e-cards and coloring pages. You can also ask the author questions, listen to songs, do puzzles and read the first few chapters for free.
Also, the Katie & Kimble blog offers a set of third-grade level activity packets which you can download free of charge for classroom or homeschooling use. There is a full set of packets for both of the first two Katie & Kimble books and they would be a wonderful supplement to the story and help you engage your little readers even more.
Katie & Kimble is a chapter book series at RL3 (reading level 3).
http://www.katieandkimbleblog.com/blog
Price: $5.95 but for the rest of 2009 you can save 50 cents per book by using discount code BH5WWTTS at the Katie & Kimble site.
Thank you to Linda Thieman for providing Katie & Kimble: A Ghost Story to be reviewed. No other type compensation was received for this review.
