Review by Booklist Review
Encouraging emergent readers with progress notes at each chapter's end, this series kickoff introduces a diverse trio of third-grade friends with complementary traits. When Molly who says things ""get stuck"" in her head sometimes, in reference to a habit of separating breakfast Froot Loops by color and an insistence that her socks be stored flat rather than rolled up decides that she just has to find out exactly how many Skittles are in the jar on the principal's desk, her tablemates Rosa, a math whiz, and gung ho Simon help her concoct a funny, ingenious scheme to spirit the jar away and take a count. Kissi adds a two-color illustration of the trio in action, a fanciful diagram, or a bit of arithmetic to almost every page of the well-paced, well-spaced narrative. Watson folds in unobtrusive behavior modeling by endowing his young narrator with peers and parents who are sensitive to her special needs, and, along with other enrichment activities at the end, engages young coconspirators with a challenge to come up with feasible alternative ploys.--John Peters Copyright 2020 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1--3--Molly deals with compulsive tendencies often associated with OCD or ASD, but refreshingly, she is not labeled or diagnosed. Her parents and close friends understand, accept, and affirm her. However, Molly has a problem. She spies a jar of Skittles on her principal's desk, and she simply must know how many Skittles are in that jar--or she will never get the jar out of her head. Her friends Simon and Rosie understand, so together the trio hatch a delightfully creative plan that will allow Molly to count the Skittles. The normalization of compulsive tendencies is extremely well executed here. Molly's voice is authentic and relatable, and the text is enhanced by lively, entertaining illustrations. Twelve small boxes at the end of each brief chapter are "filled in" as the narrative moves forward, providing structure and encouragement to readers wanting to track their progress. Yet some may feel that the book ends on an odd, unresolved note. Young readers often roll their eyes at overly didactic resolutions where adults finally prompt a protagonist to "do the right thing," but Watson firmly rejects this trope. Molly secretly swaps the jar of Skittles from her principal's desk with a different jar of Skittles, and her parents' reaction to learning the truth is to help Molly eat the Skittles --- a wryly humorous ending to take with a grain of salt. VERDICT Hand to young readers who adore silliness, and those who deal with compulsive tendencies.--Sara White, Seminole County Public Library, Casselberry, FL
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Molly, a grade schooler with a few quirks, gets help from her two best friends in solving a problem that's bothering her.Molly likes to count things, shuns food not of certain colors, and eats some other foods only in even numbers. Her parents are both aware of her extreme focus and completely accepting of it: "That's just who you are," they say. Molly's best friends, one a perceptive black girl and the other a white boy with an expansive imaginationMolly is biracial, with a black mom and white dadare just as understanding. When Molly becomes consumed with the need to count the number of Skittles in a big jar on their principal's desk, the two naturally pitch in to help her find a way to get into a little troublejust enough to lead to an office visitand then methods for both luring the principal away and giving Molly the opportunity to complete the count. Their clever problem-solving skills are as much on display as their empathy with Molly's unique personality. Large-print chapters are brief and illustration-rich, and each concludes with a series of milestone boxes that show emergent readers how much of the book they've already gotten through. With likable characters, an amusing situation, and lots of reinforcement for readers, this effort is sure to be a hit. What underlies Molly's quirks is never explored within the story, leaving her behavior open to interpretation.An empathetic introduction to a new series of early chapter books. (Fiction. 5-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
