Review of the ‘TooCool’ and ‘Marcy’ Series
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Review of the ‘TooCool’ and ‘Marcy’ Series
Written by Phil Kettle and Susan Halliday
Publisher: Ford Street Publishing
Age Range: 7 years+
Themes: sports, friendships, outdoors, adventures, action
My name is Toocool, and I’m a legend!
I’m always after books for young readers just starting out on chapter books. The ‘TooCool’ and ‘Marcy’ books have been around for a while now and are perennially popular, but some great new titles have just been released.
The ‘TooCool’ books are squarely aimed at young boys, but I know plenty of sport loving girls who enjoy them as much as they enjoy the companion series, ‘Marcy’. The characters in ‘Marcy’ and ‘TooCool’ are the same so if children enjoy one series, they will enjoy seeing the characters in the other.
Children from around 7 years will feel confident reading the ‘TooCool’ and ‘Marcy’ books; the mix of illustrations and text is great. They can also be read by much older children and are often used with students who are experiencing difficulty with reading. The stories never speak down to the reader and they include topics from surfing to soccer to cowboys and waterslides, so they span a wide interest and age range. Lots of humour, action and sport, and some very likeable characters which children will engage with and want to keep reading about.
Phil Kettle has been writing the ‘TooCool’ books for some time now and he has ensured a mix of text types in the different titles in the series – there is some facts, diagrams, Q&A sections and some excellent jokes. Many other small chapter book series are formulaic and poorly written (even some of the wildly popular series, which I shan’t name!). ‘TooCool’ and ‘Marcy’ are not this – this is clever writing – care has been taken with these books.
The author of the ‘TooCool’ series, Phil Kettle, has some great words of encouragement and advice about young boys and reading here.
You can purchase the new sets of ‘Marcy’ and ‘TooCool’ (ten titles in total) at the moment on Booktopia for $81.95 – $8 a title isn’t bad value at all! Link to this special is here.
They can be purchased individually as here, and in bind up versions like this one, which has four books bound into one – these are excellent value.
Teaching notes are here.
The title of each book takes you to the Australian based online bookstore Booktopia. If you live in the US or would prefer to use Amazon click here. If you live in the UK or would prefer to use Book Depository click here.
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Haven’t heard of the too cool books before. Please add me to the competition – sounds perfect for my boys. Thanks for the blog and the recommendations…
Great books….we have them on the library and use them …….great first chapter books and engaging titles…..
These would be fabulous for my nephew and niece! I remember when the series first came out in my early teaching days….oh dear starting to feel old now! Xo
Would love to add these books to my classroom resources. Always on the look for books that might engage boys in reading. Love your work M.
All ways on the look out for books for the boys, These look like a good read and are the perfect age for my boys 🙂
My son has read and enjoyed some of the Too Cool series but I was unaware of the Marcy series, my little miss is just starting on chapter books so I will keep and eye out for those.
Sounds like a fantastic series. I have a daughter who can’t get enough of chapter books, they would suit her down to the ground.