Why Can't You Fold Your Pants Like David Levine?

Joan Weller is head librarian at the West Branch of Ottawa Public
Library, and the children’s literature reviewer for the Ottawa
Citizen.

Billed as a “ Ready*Set*Read” book, this title fails as a reader.
Good readers, exemplified by the titles in the “I Can Read” series,
have set standards to follow (e.g., easy sight words, phonetically based
vocabulary, repetition, easy sentence structure, and a worthwhile story
accompanied by good pictures). This book, by contrast, contains
difficult sight vocabulary (enough, exclaimed, nothing, would, ninth),
lacks phonetically structured vocabulary and helpful repetition, and
tells an unappealing episodic “story” with unattractive, colored
pictures that serve to confuse the reader. The story consists of little
but repeated verbal abuse from a mother admonishing her child for his
lack of success at school and on the playground, and for his failure to
fold his pants correctly. Not recommended.