Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride

DiCamillo, K., & Van, D. C. (2006). Mercy Watson goes for a ride. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Genre: Fiction

Age Level: 5-7

Summary: Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride is the second book in the Mercy Watson series. In this story the adventures continue when Mercy wants to drive the Watson’s convertible. One Saturday, when Mercy and Mr. Watson are out on their normal drive, Mr. Watson notices Baby Lincoln (the elderly neighbor) in the back seat.  Mercy gets very excited and jumps in Mr. Watson’s lap. Mr. Watson tries his best to get Mercy to move but she would not. They end up in a high speed chase with a police officer. The day is finally saved when the elderly neighbor manages to stop the car. The police officer takes all three back home and instead of writing them a ticket Mrs. Watson was able to talk the officer into toast and butter.

Reflection: This book is really cute and funny. The illustrator, Chris Van Dusen, continued the same theme throughout the series. The illustrations are cartoons that enhance the plot, characters, and mood of the book. Just as book one did this book has some illustrations that are page bleeds while others are just small clusters of images. The book has glossy images that provide visual cues to support the text and adds loads of humor. The facial expressions within the book are outstanding and make you laugh as you read the story. This book is also a paperback book and the cover contains a doublespread illustration to give the effect of a man and a pig in a car with the police chasing them. This makes the book look fun and interesting to read.  

Students will love reading this series because of the overall experience gained throughout the stories. Each book contains a different adventure to read about and amazing illustrations to support the adventure. This book is excellent for students who are in between a traditional early reader and an early chapter book. The vocabulary is not very hard either and the story itself contains a lot of repetition to make the book easier for students.

This fictional book series would make great books for ELL students because the illustrations are easy to follow. This makes the story easy to retell even if students are ELL or simply low level readers. Students can start with the illustration on the cover to make a prediction about what the book will be about and then complete a picture walk through the book to help make their predictions about the plot of the story. This series would also be useful when sequencing events in order, compare and contrast, and character traits. Some questions that students could answer are: How are Eugenia and Baby Lincoln similar and different? Why do you think Mercy wants to drive so badly? What would you do if you saw a pig driving a car?