If you have a beginning reader who loves horses, you may want to check out Kregel Publications’ Circle C Beginnings series by Susan Marlow. Circle C Beginnings is a series of Christian fiction chapter books written for 6-8 year olds.
I received Andi’s Fair Surprise, a sweet little paperback book in Kregel’s Circle C Beginnings series. The main character in Andi’s Fair Surprise is Andi Carter, a spunky 6-year old girl who lives on her family’s ranch during the late 1800’s.
In this particular story, Andi and her family are heading to the 1874 California State Fair and Andi doesn’t want to go. Everyone else has something to enter into the fair…but Andi is too young to take an entry. However, once Andi gets to the fair, she finds that it is a lot more exciting than she expected.
Our Thoughts
I chose to use Andi’s Fair Surprise as a read-aloud with my kiddos ages 9, 7 and 4. I knew that my 7yo would love the story because she is a horse-lovin’ girl, but both of my sons enjoyed the book also.
When we do read-alouds, I usually limit our reading sessions to one chapter. However, we ended up completing all ten chapters in Andi’s Fair Surprise in just two lunchtime read-aloud sessions.
There are a whole host of printables available that go along with the Circle C Beginnings books. For Andi’s Fair Surprise the printables included coloring pages featuring black and white illustrations from the book {which kept my kiddos’ hands busy while they listened to me read}.
There were also a bunch of other fun worksheets that supplemented Andi’s Fair Surprise: a dot-to-dot page, some state-fair math pages, a California State Fair map and more. These worksheets made it so simple to extend my kiddos’ learning, turning Andi’s Fair Surprise from a fun read-aloud into a fun and educational read-aloud.
You can view the activity pages that match the books in the Circle C Beginnings series here. There is also a link to the supplemental pages on this page.
A link to an excerpt from Andi’s Fair Surprise is available on this page.
My kiddos loved Andi’s Fair Surprise, and they were delighted to learn that there are more Andi books…two of them are already on our shelves waiting to be read :).
More Information
There are currently four books in the Circle C Beginnings series, including Andi’s Fair Surprise. You can purchase Andi’s Fair Surprise {and the other three books} from Kregel Publications’ website for $4.99 each plus shipping.
Susan Marlow has also written a series of books about Andi for older readers, ages 9-14 in the Circle C Adventures series. These books are also available for purchase on Kregel Publications’ website.
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I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of this book. I did not receive any further compensation for my review.
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