Home > Categories > Books > Kids - General > Mike the Spike review
Mike is proud of his spiky hair - his spikes make him look taller and very grown up. But to his horror, he discovers he has lice. The great hat parade is only two days away and he longs to win a prize for best hat. But how can he, when he can't stop scratching long enough to make one?
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I never thought of getting chapter books for my daughter who is 6, she loves reading and to my surprised see her reading books we have at home they are simple chapter books, so thought I would try her with something a bit more longer. Mike the spike seemed like a good book that she could relate to as it is about a boy that gets head lice and my daughter use to get them often and is always coming home with notices from school saying they are going around again.
She saw the book and wanted to read it herself the words are nice and big and simple but she was getting frustrated she couldn't read it a chapter fast enough before lights out, so I ended up reading her a chapter a night, we are still only up to chapter 6 but she is loving it, she loves trying to guess what is going to happen next and she giggles at some parts of the book. When I ask her questions like is that a good way to remove lice she will answer with what we did with her and it was lice shampoo and comb.
From what we have read so far its a great book for those that are wanting something a bit harder to read,as the back of the book suggests from age 7. My daughter is loving the fact that we can read it together and its about matters she knows about, we will actually watch for books in this series. Will be good when she is reading alone because I'm pretty sure she will come back to this book to read on her own. The price isn't too bad, but a bit more than I could pay for.
I've been looking out for simple chapter books to read with the 8 year old boy who I nanny and seen this book come up on KIWIreviews. He is a bit of a reluctant reader so it is best to keep the reading format quite simple but at the same time have a bit of an interesting/funny storyline that is not too babyish. This book seemed like it could be quite funny with the tale of Mike and his head lice.
I took this book with me to work and we read it together. The storyline is quite funny with Mike and his precious spikey hair. Mike loves his hair and gets called Mike the Spike with his funny red spikey hair. Except he gets nits and he itches and itches and itches but he is too scared to tell anyone in fear that his mum will shave his hair like when Grandad was a boy.
He does everything to hide the fact he has nits even though it meant he couldn't concentrate on his school work, he even uses his pocket money to buy his own nit shampoo and fails to get rid of the nits. In the end he is caught out and finds out he won't lose his hair after all (much to his relief). I think the storyline has a quite simple message about being honest to your parents and not hiding things from them. I think it is important for young children to realise they can talk/tell their parents anything.
I definitely think this would be a good book for children between 6 and 8 as it is quite a simple book for young readers but still a good book you could read to younger children when you want a longer book. There are no hard words so young readers shouldn't struggle too much reading it by themselves. We enjoyed it and had a giggle at Mike and his nits.
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