[.ca] Martha Blah Blah (ISBN 0395797551)

ipiio Boo!* i ig fu.**:
*An inspirational book! Heightens the child's awareness of the importance of the sounds that different letters make (great fun for phonemic awareness). My 5 year old got a kick out of decoding Martha's garbled messages. **It makes reading fun.

Martha Blah Blah:
Martha Blah Blah is about a dog who can speak when she eats alphabet soup. With her new-found language, Martha has adventures, helps people and animals and learns new things. She does have a dilemma, but she overcomes it to save the day. The illustrations in this book enhance the story. The illustrator uses large watercolor images that are humorous and does a good job of showing what is going on in the story. The author uses words that make the book easy to understand and employs a large font so that they are easy to read. The author also includes footnotes in some parts of the book, which can draw the attention away from the illustrations to the footnotes. Without the footnotes, however, one would not be able to decipher what Martha is saying when she loses her voice. Even though the footnotes draw attention away from the illustrations one can have fun trying and decipher what Martha is saying and then the answer is at the bottom of the page. In a small way, the footnotes make one think while reading the book. I believe that this book is entertaining and sparks the imagination. Like most children' books, it has a happy ending, which makes the story even more likable. Overall, I think that Martha Blah Blah is an excellent children's book that deserves to be read.

Laugh out loud wonderful:
I read this book to my nephew, not knowing how completely hysterical the Martha series is. The illustrations, including the very funny side dialogues, is straight-forward and not at all confusing. You can read the book to smaller children without the side dialogue, and they'll still understand it. Older kids can read the dialogue out loud and be just as entertained. The story isn't scary, and does give a few good but not preachy lessons: avoid being greedy, don't abuse the telephone (there's a great picture of Martha yakking away on the telephone and getting reprimanded), and that being understood when you speak is very important. Lots of fun, quick little story, ideal for bedtime. I highly recommend it.

Good story, good politics:
This is my favorite Martha book and one of the few children's books I have found with good labor politics (_Cows That Type_ is another).

Entertaining for kids AND adults!:
I was lucky enough to come across this book while searching for a birthday gift for a little friend of mine. I was intrigued by the title, picked it up, and then had to read the ENTIRE thing. What a fabulous book! The words are clearly printed on a white background, the pictures are large and colorful, and the humor in what Martha says will keep readers of all ages entertained. Not only does the story deal with standing up for what you need, but I found that I could use this in my practice as a speech-language pathologist. Martha, when she eats alphabet soup, gains the ability to speak because all the letters go into her brain instead of to her stomach. But when some letters are left out, she has trouble communicating. When she gets all her letters, she can communicate just fine. A lesson! Wow! I've read a lot of children's books, and this is a gem. Don't miss it.