Ellray Jake walks the plank by Sally Warner illustrated by Jamie Harper

The first thing I want to do with this book Ellray Jakes Walks the plank is find a teacher or a parent who will read it aloud to a child or a class.  This book is so funny and so real.

Ellray brings home the class goldfish during their one week April holiday.  This goldfish belongs to his teacher Ms Sanchez.  "Ms Sanchez's boyfriend won Zip for her at a church festival two weeks ago when he tossed a ping-pong ball into a bowl of water the size of a softball. Ms Sanchez says this is a lot harder to do than it looks."

As you might expect there is a disaster with the goldfish.  I loved the way Ellray's little sister wants to call him Swimmy after the Leo Lionni character.  Perhaps you are wondering about the name Ellray?

"Mom writes fantasy books for grown-ups. That's why she loves castles. That's also why Alfie and I have such weird names.  "Alfleta", which means 'beautiful elf' in old Saxon,  and 'Lancelot Raymond' for me. Lancelot was a guy in a famous old story."

This is actually the third book about Ellray Jakes but it can stand alone. There is so much to enjoy about this book. The wonderful teacher, the school Principal, the other kids in the class and most especially the relationship between Ellray and his irresistible little sister Alfie.

Here is a web site for the author.

The EllRay Jakes stories are just right for his real-life peers; short enough to be read by kids getting comfortable with chapter books and also enjoyable and authentic.

If you enjoy this book you should also read Keena Ford and the second grade mix-up in our library.