Mr Tripp Smells a Rat by Sandy McKay, ill. Ruth Paul, Walker Books Australia ISBN 9781921529061
A review copy of this book was sent to us by the publisher.
Lily is in Room 5 at school and Mr Tripp Smells a Rat has three stories about the teacher Mr Tripp and his class. Lily thinks Mr Tripp is awesome—he tells jokes and he has a clever nose for sniffing things out.
Story 1: Mr Tripp Smells a Rat
Mr Tripp has to sniff out a pet rat who has escaped from another classroom. Mr Tripp hates rats, but he has to be brave because all his students are peering in the window watching him!
Story 2: Mr Tripp Eats Some Fish
Mr Tripp tells the class he has been on a diet—eating lots of fish and fruit and vegetables to lose weight and stay healthy. His birthday is coming up and the class want to throw him a surprise party. But what sort of cake can you make for a teacher on a seafood diet?
Story 3: Mr Tripp Finds a Nit
Eww! Room 5 learns about headlice and how to get rid of headlice and nits! This bit made me laugh:
Suddenly everyone started scratching because when you talk about things living in your hair it makes you itchy.
(Doesn’t that make you feel like scratching your head, too?) At the end of 2 weeks, Mr Tripp checks everyone’s hair to see if the class is headlice-free. And he makes a horrible discovery …
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There are great illustrations on every page of Mr Tripp Smells a Rat. (I like the one where Mr Tripp puts his finger on his nose and goes cross-eyed.)
The stories are fun and include lots of riddles. There are even three bonus pages at the end of the book with more of Mr Tripp’s favourite riddles. If you are starting to enjoy chapter books, this is a great book to add to your reading pile.
alphabetsoup.net.au 
I love the fact that publishers and writers are creating books like this for kids who are ready for chapter books, but might be daunted by too much text. This sounds perfect!