Groovy Joe: Dance Party Countdown by Eric Litwin and Tom Lichtenheld

Groovy Joe is a dance party of one, but as more and more dogs show up to join the fun, does he get upset? Goodness no! There's always room for more.

This book is sure to be a hit with kids: it has bright, dynamic illustrations, a rollicking, rhyming text, and the star power of the author who brought us Pete the Cat. (Of course, to the Geisel Committee, that last point is immaterial.) When viewed as a Geisel contender, this book has both strengths and weaknesses.

First of all, it does a lot of things very well. The text uses a great deal of repetition, so new vocabulary (for example, "disco") generally appears often enough for readers to gain confidence reading those potentially unfamiliar words. The font size is generous, line breaks are in helpful places, and sentences are never carried over a page turn. Instead, there is often a question on one page, and the answer to the question after the page turn – which is an obvious way of creating a "page-turning dynamic." Moreover, this book plays with simple math concepts that beginning readers may also be exploring in school. Both numerals (e.g. "4") and the printed names of numbers (e.g. "four") are used. And, as mentioned above, this is a fun book that kids will enjoy reading.

Of course, for a beginning reader, it's not perfect. For one thing, I'd take exception with the title: this book counts up, not down! Beyond that, there are a couple of instances of challenging vocabulary, but the main issue that I see is the inclusion of special fonts: block letters with funky shading, fonts with little squiggly bits that could be confusing to inexperienced readers, and words that go sprawling across the page, interacting with the illustrations in a way that makes for the occasional chaotically busy page. There are even a few words in loopy cursive, likely to pose a challenge to any young reader. And, while some of these artistically rendered words (including the cursive ones) could be skipped without impacting understanding of the story, others are necessary to the reading experience.

Is this a deal-breaker for Groovy Joe? Only this year's Geisel Committee can know for sure. If this title were suggested, I would expect the font issue to feature prominently in their discussions, but the committee might find that the book's strengths outweigh its weaknesses. Either way, Groovy Joe is sure to enliven countless preschool story times: Disco party bow wow!