The Chestnut Challenge: The Nocturnals Grow & Read Early Reader, Level 3

GOOD MESSAGE...KIDS LOVED IT

The Chestnut Challenge is an adaptation of an early chapter in the chapter book for young adults, The Nocturnals. (The Nocturnals is pretty good, but is maybe older elementary or middleschool level. The Chestnut Challenge is one of a set of graded readers aimed at much younger children.) It has illustrations of the animal characters playing something like checkers but with chestnuts. All illustrations are cartoony with limited detail and against a white background. They do help to let a child reading the story to see illustrations and fill in the blanks or follow along better with the story.The story is about a group of woodland animals playing checkers with chestnuts. A new animal, a sugar glider, joins in and claims to be the chestnut champion. Subjects covered are confidence levels of the various animals and cheating at games.The Chestnut Challenge is a graded reader. It's marked as "Level 3 Grow and Read: Reading Independently (Grades 2-3)", which is described as "More complex plots, feeding imagination and growing information skills." (There are several similar scales for graded readers. This is the "Grow and Read" scale, in case you already have any books rated on that scale to give you a feel for it.) The product info lists this as for ages 6 to 8 years old. I'd say that product info is an appropriate age for reading the story to the child, but isn't as targeted nor as accurate as the graded reader info on the book. My 6 year old who just started first grade was into the story when I read it to him. He also definitely can't read it by himself. No way. He is able to read graded readers more in the level 1 or level preschool or whatever level uses lots of sight words and repetition. In this book, each page has about 3 simple short sentences on it. Language is a little more complex and less repetitive. Illustrations show scenes from the story and can help the child to know what they are reading about. In general, I'd say if your child can read with some fluency and has a big vocabulary for reading to where they will sound out only the new words like "pangolin", but not words like "cheating" and "forward" and "cheered", then that's a good level for them to be able to read this on their own. Grades 2 or 3 seems like a good fit, based on what I'm seeing with my children (all of whom are younger than that). (Of course, with books, it's better to buy a little older and the child grow into it.)At the end of the book, there are some paragraph long descriptions of each animal and about how chestnuts are green then ripen to brown (hence how the animals have two colors to play with). This is good for reading to a child to give a bit of background. There aren't any animal facts in the actual text of the book, since it's all about the dynamics of playing and cheating at chestnut checkers.Overall, this is a good book for the mix for children learning to read. The book has animals, and that might appeal to some children. Illustrations are cartoony, not realistic, which may matter to the child. The actual topic of the book is sportsmanship. Hope that helps in figuring out whether or not it's right for your child.

my 6year old read this to me with some help

Our six year likes reading chapter books, but his short attention span kicks in if they get too wordy. The Chestnut Challenge is ideal for his reading abilities—just enough words and illustrations on each page to keep him interested. The story line is a simple one—when it comes to games, winning isn’t everything. One of the nocturnal animals (Chandler Chinchilla) resorts to cheating in order to win a chestnut checkers game. The ending sends a positive message—as much as we all want to be champions, it takes practice to master any game. The other nocturnals help Chandler focus on having fun rather than winning at all costs.This is an easy book to get through in one sitting. Our six year old had no idea what a pangolin or sugar glider was—fortunately, there is a brief description about each animal in the back of the book, and an explanation how nocturnal animals behave. This is a nice introduction into the world of easy chapter books, and does a good job holding short attention spans. Most suited for around first or early second grade readers.

Picked this up for my 6-year-old who has been reading for a while now, and his 4-year-old little sister. Overall they liked it, but it's not their favorite.The mix of text to pictures is probably a bit dense for a younger reader -- I'd say this is better suited for a 2nd or 3rd grader, although it was good to go through as a bedtime story. My kids enjoyed the story (which wasn't overly long), and even wanted to hear the facts (although their interest waned there).Pictures are cute and colorful, and there are multiple illustrations on each page, so it's a good transition to longer books, but they're mostly little animals, and not a lot of scenes.Content is entirely perfect for younger kids. It's one of those books that tries to teach kids how to handle interpersonal conflict and play fair, and that having fun is more important than winning. Standard kids' moral.Overall, it's a pretty decent book. I can't say that it rises to the level of quality that my kids will be reading it to their kids years down the road, but it's worth taking a look.

A very interesting book about nocturnal animals playing a game of chestnuts “checkers”. A newcomer joins in on the fun and claims to be a champ, when later you learn he cheats to win.Great moral to the story. Geared toward young readers that can read on their own, Grade Level 2-3. Illustrations are adorable cartoons of the animals.Each animal has a specific personality that leads to in-depth characters the author uses throughout her series. A sugar glide, a red fox and a pangolin are joined by a chinchilla.This book includes fun facts about each animal in the glossary. It also includes downloadable activities that include crafts and sight word games. Great for summer reading or homeschool. O really wish more books came with online activities and games.

My book arrived bent, so take that into consideration if you are gift giving thin book when you order.I like the Grow and Read books. It's not just a book. It gives parents and home school parents ideas of how to use it more than just reading the book. The grow and read series gives a suggested age level, suggested activities to go along with the book, and fun facts about the book. You can make so much more out of it than just reading this book. This book is considered a level 3 book, which is reading independently in grades 2-3. You could also make it into a shared reading as it does have some unique names in the book. It also has free downloads that you can download before the child reads the book to help with word recognition. The download also gives ideas of games that you can do with the words that are in the book.This particular book has a theme of "it's not about winning, but about having fun and trying your best." I'd highly recommend this book or series to families.