The Know-It-All Pencil
Lois Wickstrom
Look Under Rocks (2022)
ISBN: 978-1954519374
Reviewed by Lydia (age 8) for Reader Views Kids (07/2022)
“The Know-It-All Pencil” is the fifth story in the “Invisible Magic Wand” series by Lois Wickstrom. I have not read any of the other books in the series, but in this story, a boy named Caspian wakes up and it’s his unbirthday. Every year, Caspian gets a gift from his grandpa on his birthday. This year, he sees a box under his bed and finds a pencil and a pad of paper; he isn’t sure what to do with it and isn’t really excited until he picks up the pencil and it moves on its own! The pencil writes “apple” on the paper and his grandpa says that he will have a “star adventure,” but Caspian isn’t sure what that means. The pencil takes Caspian on an adventure to figure out what is going on.
I was glad when I read this book that I didn’t need to know too many things that happened in the books before because this is the fifth book in the series; you can read it without reading the ones before and be okay. I think the idea of getting presents for your unbirthday is silly, and it reminds me of “Alice in Wonderland,” when they celebrated their unbirthdays. I hadn’t read a story about a magic pencil before, so that was new to me. I like that Caspian had an adventure with going to different people and places, kind of like a scavenger hunt, or a rube goldberg machine. I would read any books that come after and before this one in the “Invisible Magic Wand” series.
Note from Mom: “The Know-It-All Pencil” is a cute story that is different from others I’ve heard of or read myself. The story is entertaining, the right length, and contains age-appropriate words so Lydia could read the story to herself once and then I enjoyed getting to read it to her another time. This story has the ability to spark the imagination of young readers to think of other inanimate objects that could do magical things. The illustrations are colorful and show how to follow directions, share, trade, and get along with all different people.
No responses yet