Meet the Bobs and Tweets, written by Pepper Springfield, reviewed by Katy Golden

Summary: The messy, slobby Bobs and the neat, clean Tweets clash in this Seuss-like illustrated early chapter book. Of the seven Bobs, only one “does not quite fit in their mix” - Dean Bob stays neat, wakes up early, and doesn’t like to cause a scene. Lou Tweet, also, does not fit in with her family, the rest of whom are constantly sweeping and “love to wash”. When both the Bob and Tweet families, wanting to find a place where they won't be bothered by their neighbors, are directed by a real estate agent to move to Bonefish Street, they quickly clash at the neighborhood pool. Amidst the brawl, Dean and Lou bond over their misfit status and appeal to the lifeguard for help in stopping the fight. The easily manufactured truce certainly won’t last, however, as the Bobs and Tweets storm off angrily to surely meet again in the next installment of the series.

Straight Talk for Librarians: Full-color illustrations and a rhythmic rhyme style reminiscent of Dr. Seuss’ early reader texts fill these short chapters. From the opening lines - “A mob of Bobs lives like slobs. A mob! Of Bobs! Oh, such slobs” - readers will be curious about the boldly drawn characters. While the families themselves are fairly one-dimensional caricatures, and a simplistic compromise solves the book’s main conflict, there is a lot to like in this quick read. The repetitive rhyme scheme makes this a perfect choice to teach poetry and vowel sounds for young readers, and the differences between the families could serve as the foundation for a class discussion of compromise and conflict resolution.