Diamonds and Toads

Ellen Schecter's retelling of this classic French moral tale — kind Claire earns jewels from her lips, cruel Malina earns toads — is a Level 3 Bank Street Ready-to-Read, pitched squarely at grades 2 and 3. The virtue-and-consequence structure is as clear as fairy tales get, Ami Blackshear's illustrations support reluctant readers, and the values on display (generosity, courtesy, humility) are ones faith-minded families will appreciate. The honest limitation is scale: at this reading level the story is necessarily thin, with minimal character development beyond the moral contrast. It does exactly what it sets out to do, but what it sets out to do is modest. Expect a quick, charming read rather than a lasting literary experience.