Rating: My bookshelf

Reading Level: Early Elementary

I don’t like many of Dav Pilkey’s books but so far, Ricky Ricotta seems promising.

Possible Concerns:

  • Typical superhero story violence.
  • Typical superhero sci-fi. The villain is an overgrown mosquito who uses a machine to turn his fingernails clippings into mutant mosquito minions.

Things I liked:

  • Ricky has a good relationship with his parents
  • Ricky shows courage.
  • Ricky and his robot fight for justice.
  • Ricky pretends he needs to go to the bathroom to evade his kidnapper. This sparked a good chat with my kids about when it is ok to lie.
  • This easy read is a hybrid between chapter book and graphic novel. It seems to be a great way to help reluctant readers keep reading.

Overall, this action-packed book is easy to read.