The Miniature World of Marvin & James (The Masterpiece Adventures, 1)

My rising 2nd grader is a picky reader. He loves to read but does not like the book to feel too long. (I now know this is a real thing for some kids!) I was trying to get him to broaden his reading choices beyond graphic novels with potty humor knock-knock jokes (not that there is anything wrong with those books, it's still reading!) and I stumbled upon this Marvin & James series. I was familiar with Broach's children's novel 'Masterpiece" and liked her writing. This series is about the same boy, James, and his beetle friend. This is a great novel for the reader who is ready for chapter books but finds longer books too daunting.

I bought a set of 6 of this book (and the next one in the series) for my 1st/2nd grade class. It’s a great book and the cover appears to be good quality, however when my students opened the book and turned a few pages, the pages began falling out immediately. I thought they had been rough on their books and then it happened to me. This isn’t going to be fixable; it’s multiple pages, whole chunks of pages coming out. Two whole sets of books that aren’t even going to last a year of gentle use with a couple of reading groups. Such a bummer.

I was so excited to get this book in the mail. I loved Masterpiece, but knew my kindergartener couldn't read it yet. This is a great "I CAN READ" version for those new readers. It was a great story all on it's own. (It was NOT meant to be a continuation of MASTERPIECE.) I can't wait for this author to create new books to go with this. That beetle is precious and I am so glad I can share it with my son.

I purchased this book for my 8 year old based on the reviews. He loved it so much, he asked for more books about the same characters. This was not a challenging read for him but I was looking for stories that would catch his interest to help encourage reading. This hit that mark!

FANTASTIC book! My 7-year old son, who is an excellent but hesitant reader devoured all 3 of these books. He could not wait to find out what happened next. I wish the author would write more, and soon!!

I paid $4.25 for a few pages. I thought this was going to be an actual book like the book I just read callec the Masterpiece. What a waste!!

Fun and entertaining book for young readers. This book is pretty short and has pictures on every page.It’s a great book for those who are just starting to read chapter books!

Great book, Kid loved it.

If you have read and loved Masterpiece by the same author/illustrator DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! It is completely different. It is extremely short and it is extremely different and shares no traits with it's predecessor. It is extremely slow paced and has none of the thriller traits of the original and is frankly boring. Good for ages 4-6 thought the original was better for 9-12 this is a big flaw as far as I'm concerned.

This is a perfect bridge between the ‘early readers’ to chapter books. My 7 year old is absolutely taken with it. The words and spacing are so much easier compared to other early chapter books. Also, the words are repeated, almost in a reader style. I hope this becomes a longer series! The little bug ‘Marvin’ is so funny. The drawings are perfect too.

good product