Tiana's kind pony

Gr 1--3--Princess Tiana is overjoyed when she receives Bayou, a pony, as a gift. They become fast friends as they spend time together at a parade, visiting friends, and going to Tiana's Palace. When Louis, the palace's trumpet player, goes missing, Bayou and Lily, the cat, go searching. This Level 2 reader incorporates word repetition and character knowledge gleaned from the movie The Princess and the Frog to build reader confidence. The sentence structure varies slightly, but any potential difficulty is moderated by sight words, simple vocabulary, and strong context clues. The story itself is disjointed and doesn't develop even a sparse plot until halfway through the book, but readers likely won't notice this hole, as the illustrations are engaging and the characters are likely some of their favorites. VERDICT Not the highest quality or the most current Disney release, but Tiana fans will enjoy it. A secondary purchase.--Kate Davis