Cartoon Network has a lot of great shows for younger kids; The Powerpuff Girls is one of Annabelle’s favorites. She grabs her blanket, wraps it around her neck and runs around the house saying that she is the missing “PPG” [Powerpuff Girl]. Since she has really started to love reading on her own, I decided to take her to the bookstore so she could pick out some ‘special’ books. Needless to say, almost every one of them was Powerpuff Girl related but one thing I forgot about is that they have chapter books. These are ones that let you pick the course of the story; when you come to the end of a page it asks you a few questions and depending on which you pick, that’s the page that you flip to. A few of the ones that she picked out were structured like this and, well, she didn’t really care for them. The one that she has been hooked on for the past few weeks is “Where Is Chicken Pox?”, no matter how many times she reads it, she still goes back to it time and time again. She’s gotten pretty good with doing different voices for the different characters and it’s pretty funny to hear her reading it from three rooms away.

Where Is Chicken Pox?

The city of Townsville. As usual the girls are out protecting the city from monsters and bad guys and when they return home from a long day they drift off to sleep. When they wake up they all notice that they have red bumps on them and they are itchy! They creep into the kitchen and the professor is on the phone with their teacher; they overhear his conversation. “The girls will not be coming to school today, Chicken Pox has got them!” The girls already made up their mind that so bad guy gave them the bumps and itchies and after hearing the conversation between Professor Utomium and Ms Keane, there was no doubt in their mind. They set off to find out exactly who did this to them and to find out how to get rid of the bumps.

They make their rounds to all the usual suspects; Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, the Gangreen Gang but they all give the same type of response – don’t bring Chicken Pox in here! Since all the bad guys are afraid of Chicken Pox the girls are convinced that he must be one of the worst, trickiest and quickest villains around. They fly to Pokey Oaks Kindergarten to see if Ms. Keane spotted the illusive Chicken Pox and they are told that they can’t come inside. Deciding that this means real trouble they fly to the Townsville City Hall to warn the mayor. He talked about his crossing with Chicken Pox when he was younger and they might have been stuck there all day if the buxom Ms. Bellum hadn’t seen how tired they were and suggested that she take them home.

Even under the weather, the girls knew that Chicken Pox had to be stopped, something that they said over and over to the professor. That’s when he explained to them that Chicken Pox wasn’t really a person [that’s when the spelling changes from Chicken Pox to chicken pox] but something that kids catch and that it makes them sick. The cutest twist to the story is that all the bad guys that the girls went to visit all come down with chicken pox the next day. As usual, the story ends with “So once again the day is saved …” and while they are still covered with red bumps and extremely itchy, they are victorious over Chicken Pox!

My Take

This is a really cute story for younger kids to read but I wish they would have had the professor go into a little more detail about chicken pox and that you shouldn’t scratch them no matter how badly they itch. With illustrations from the Thompson Brothers and written by Tracey West, this colorful book is one that most kids will find a complete howl. The girls think that chicken pox is a real person and most of that is because of the way that the adults and the bad guys react when they see them with the red bumps. For me this was a good book but it could have been better; if they would have added a few pages of how people get chicken pox or what people to do get over them, it might have helped some kids who were down with a case of them. Even so, this is a great book for beginning readers and all the illustrations are exactly how you see them on the television show.

The Bottom Line

If you have a child that is just starting to read this is a great book to pick up for them. There are a lot of great books in the series but as I mentioned earlier, you will want to make sure that they aren’t the chapter type books. These are for kids that are a little older because they make them stop and think about what they want the characters to do and plot the outcome of the story. This is a level two reader; it has basic words in it but they do add some new vocabulary words that you won’t find in the level one books. If your child is into the Powerpuff Girls this is a great way to get them interested in reading on their own. They might have a little trouble with a few words but overall this is a pretty easy read.


As always, thanks for the read!

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2005 Freak369


Other great books for kids …

Secret at Dolphin Bay – A Lego Reader Book
Castle Under Attack – A Lego Reader Book
Getting to Grips With Grammar
Dragon’s Merry Christmas
Preschool & Kindergarten Skills
The Hallo-Wiener
Early Learning Concepts: Weather
Rookie Read-About Holidays: Groundhog Day





Recommended: Yes