Flower Girl Kate is a book for early readers about Katie Woo's nervousness about being her aunt's flower girl. This book is most appropriate for younger readers beginning to read or for readers whose reading level is low. This book has 3 short chapters as well as illustrations that add more meaning to the text. This book shows the main character being nervous and her friends being able to offer their help, readers will be able to relate to this. The importance of friendship is a great theme for readers to learn from this book. ( )

Katie Woo loves her Aunt Patty and she and her friend JoJo spend a lot of time visiting her. When Aunt Patty asks her to be the flower girl at her wedding, Katie is thrilled! But then she starts thinking about all the things that could go wrong. She becomes very anxious and almost wants to back out. Jojo and some of Katie's other friends help her to get over her anxiety and participate in the wedding.

Flower Girl Katie is a cute, early reader novel that kids, especially girls, will love. Katie Woo is a great character for young children to relate to. Her anxiety about being a flower girl will hit home for many. Her friends were entertaining as well; and I enjoyed seeing all of the kids interact with one another while trying to help Katie. I liked that the children were from various backgrounds and ethnicities. The story was quick, with good description and language for early readers. I also enjoyed the illustrations in this book. They were cute, vibrant and well executed. I would recommend this book to families and schools, especially to deal with children who have anxiety issues. My grandson has anxiety problems and this book shows that it is normal and any child would be anxious in certain situations as well as giving some simple solutions to try. A special craft project, along with a glossary and reader response questions, round out this Katie Woo story. I didn't realize that this is a little series, but I will check out the others by Fran Manushkin. The publisher, Picture Window Books, generously provided me with a copy of this book up0n my request. The rating, ideas and opinions shared are my own. ( )