Billie B Brown, by Sally Rippin

When you read really great picture books to your kids regularly you can get a little spoilt. Often the pictures are really amazing, and the story lines can be unique and quirky. You can get books that have rhyming, or word plays that make it interesting for the grown up too.

So when your child begins to outgrow just a picture book and is interested in short chapter books it can be a bit difficult to get excited. They feel formulaic, repetitive and predictable: the main character encounters a new situation/emotion, they make a bad choice, they realise they need to change – voila – happy ending. But I’m going to tell you why you should be excited about short chapter books like the Billie B Brown series, and how to get the most out them.

For those from my generation ‘Billie B Brown‘ is what a child reads after Dr Seuss but before they are ready for the Baby-sitters Club. They are 4 short chapters that can often be read by an adult in around 10 mins. Billie is a spunky primary school girl who faces the normal problems kids face. She has a best friend, Jack, a baby brother, Noah, and she has friends and frenemies to deal with.

After reading a fair few of these now I am beginning to see the similarities. The opening gives us three clues and then asks you to guess what the B in Billie B Brown stands for. Also in the first chapter we are introduced to Jack, Billie’s best friend and neighbour. The story often focuses on a new situation at school or home. There might be a school excursion or a new friend, there might be a special event or celebration. Billie gets herself into a pickle that she has a ‘super-duper’ idea to get herself out of.

So for a parent this is can be boring and repetitive. I sometimes find myself tuning out as we read. Adults value originality and, when reading for entertainment, they also like surprises and twists.  But when I look at my 4 1/2 year old daughter as I read Billie B Brown and she is totally invested in the story, and upon reflection I think I know why.

For a young child who is learning to read short chapter books, the Billie B Brown series is a great starting point on the road to chapter books. They have the ideal ratio of text to pictures for those graduating from picture books. Also while the books could easily be read altogether, it is divided up into 4 chapters, giving the young reader a sense that they are progressing through the story.

The predictability in the story line makes it easier for my daughter to get through the book. She feels safe when reading difficult situations (like Billie getting lost at the zoo) because she knows in the end things will work out fine. There is no way she could read about a child that gets lost at the zoo – forever. She knows that Billie’s parents will always have her back. They are heroes in my daughter’s eyes. She knows Jack will always forgive Billie and Billie will always look out for Jack.

It’s also useful to me as a parent that Billie encounters new situations or new problems that she has to deal with.  It’s also really great for my kids to see that Billie doesn’t always get things right first time around, but she is able to pull through. She also has to deal with emotions like jealousy and regret. So by reading Billie B Brown together I get an opportunity to talk to my kids about how they would handle a similar awkward social moment, or new emotion, or life fail, or bad decision.

The Billie B Brown series also has one important feature to help young independent readers. When a grown-up reads with a child they can help the child engage by asking questions, eg, what is going to happen next? How does [main character] feel? etc. In Billie B Brown there are questions addressed to the reader as they go along. So even when the child reads by themselves they are getting a prompt to think about the story and predict solutions and outcomes.

Billie B Brown is a great literary friend to my daughter. Billie takes action, she works out her problems and she learns. My daughter wants to be Billie B Brown (her words), and that is fine by me. When Billie makes a school project from pipe cleaners, glue and icy-pole sticks, we did too. When Billie pretends to play animal hospital at school, my little wanna-be-vet was along for the ride. My only warning for parents is that there is a story where Billie cuts her own hair.

If your child isn’t in to Billie B Brown there are other series out there that might grab your child’s interest. For my son it was Zac Power (kid secret agent who always wins and is super cool) and Jack Stalwart (same-same but more chapters). So after some initial hesitation and reluctance because of my own adult tastes and expectations, I have really come around to this type of book for my kids.