Ginger Pye

Written and Illustrated by Eleanor Estes

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Religious/Secular Content	:	Secular
Adult Content	:	No
Mature Topics	:	No
Strong/Inappropriate Language	:	No
Magic/Witchcraft	:	No
Disrespect/Rebellion	:	No
Drug/Alcohol Use	:	No
Violence/Abuse	:	No
Educational Value	:	Great read aloud for all ages, great mystery that creates many opportunities for critical thinking.
Positive/Negative Message	:	No

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Can I tell you that we have been reading this book FOREVER!! I think it's because of the author's writing style. Let me explain.

This is a very child friendly book. A great read-aloud for all ages. All three of my older children ages 5, 6 and 8 have enjoyed this book. Even hubby enjoyed it when he sat in on it a few times. The author is funny and engaging. However, she does seem to go off on rabbit trails all the time.

The story is about a young boy named Jerry who works hard to earn the money to purchase a dog (Ginger) of his own only to have him stolen on Thanksgiving Day. He and his sister Rachel work tirelessly to try and find the dog and the "Unsavory Character" whom they believe to have stolen Ginger.I will leave it at that so as not to ruin the climax but I feel that Mrs. Estes could've said in maybe 150 pages what she actually said in over 300. Yeah, it's a big book.

One of our favorite characters was Rachel and Jerry's 3 year old uncle, Uncle Benny. So cute and funny! The Pye parents are sweet but the father is quite absent from the story and the Mom appears, but in short instances here and there.


The children enjoyed this book greatly and there was nothing that I was alarmed at while reading it and I'm pretty picky about what we read over here. However she is very wordy as I stated above so that might make it harder for the reader to want to keep up with this book. I know that I wanted to just stop a few times but the children wouldn't let me-they really, really liked it.