Slow Joe

Slow Joe is a recount by Joe, a boy who is used to being teased.  On the day of the cross-country race, he faces a difficult decision: help his injured tormentor or leave him behind and beat him in the race.  Joe counts doing the right thing as his victory.  The story is told in dialogue and first-person narrative.

The text is composed of a variety of sentence types.  Illustrations support the text directly.  Quotation marks, exclamation marks, dashes, and ellipses are used.  Enlarged boldface type highlights similes.  The book concludes with a two-page spread that provides the characteristics of a recount.

Some words may require clarification: ignore, loped, lumbered, trudged, slogged, staggered, stretcher.  Similes: loped off like a cheetah, lumbered off like a tortoise, and slithered … like a runaway sled are used.  The suffixes -ed (begged), -er (slower), and -y (mushy) are used.

This title is from the Sails Literacy series. Hook readers and ignite their curiosity - over 700 levelled texts with bright, colourful, sophisticated designs.