Three Cheers for Tacky

Three Cheers for Tacky

By Helen Lester

Published by Scholastic Inc. (1994)

Reading Level: Ages 4-8 years

Pages: 32

Genre: Picture Book

Summary: In an icy land there were many perfect penguins and one that was really weird, his name was Tacky. A cheering contest was announced and the winners got blue bow ties. Their team comes up with a cheer, but Tacky doesn't fit the look and he doesn't do the cheer right, he does his own cheer. The other penguins tell him he has to be like them. so he works really hard to do things like them and finally gets it right before the competition. At the competition all of the cheers were very similar and boring and they put everyone asleep. When it's Tacky's team's turn he trips and makes lots of noise that get's everyone's attention. The team does the routine over Tacky and the crowd goes wild. They have Tacky give encore performances and his team wins and get's the ribbons.

My Reaction: I like stories where it is okay to be different and break the status quo. I think we need to be more tolerant of people that are different and see what good things we can gain from them. I thought the story was cute.

Potential Problems: No

Recommendations: I would give this to first graders to read and I would read it with kids that haven't yet learned to read. I think yunger children would love the repetition in this story.