A Woodland Wedding: A Branches Book (Owl Diaries #3)

Owl Diaries #3

by Rebecca Elliott

Eva's teacher is getting married—and the whole class is invited to the wedding!

Eva's teacher, Miss Featherbottom, is getting married. All of her students have been invited to the wedding. And Eva starts a Secret Wedding Planners Club! But before Miss Featherbottom walks down the aisle, her necklace goes missing. Eva wants to help! She quickly turns her Wedding Planners Club into a Detectives Club. Can Eva track down the missing necklace before Miss Featherbottom's wedding is ruined?

This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line called Branches, which is aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow!

Genres: Childrens, Chapter Books, Animals, Fiction, Middle Grade, Fantasy, 1st Grade

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 5, 2016

About the author

Rebecca Elliott is the author and illustrator of the best-selling Owl Diaries series (Scholastic US) & over 20 picture books including Just Because, Sometimes, Naked Trevor and Zoo Girl, for which she was nominated for the 2012 Kate Greenaway Medal.
Her new series The Unicorn Diaries (Scholastic US) & her first YA novel 'Pretty Funny ' (Penguin Random House) are out now.

Reviews

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read to my student in my class and she seemed to love it! We focused on story setting and she drew pictures from each chapter of the setting in that particular part of the book. Very cute! Can't wait to read more.

[Elise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was not insanely adorable the way the #2 book in this series was, but it was still pretty cute. I like how they show that the "mean girl" in the book isn't a one dimensional "bad character" but she's a complete character with good qualities in addition to the bad qualities.

[Bookishrealm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great installment in the series. I'm glad that Eva was able to solve the mystery with the help of old friends and new friends.

[zapkode · Rating 5 out of 5]

{My thoughts} – There was a lot going on in this book. First of all Eva’s teacher was planning a wedding and all her classmates helped. Her teacher lost her necklace and all the classmates worked together to try and find it. And a surprise birthday party was thrown for their classmate Sue.

This book helps to show children that more can be accomplished when you work together. This book series is started to remind me more and more of Wonder Pets a show my older children use to watch about classroom pets that help save the day. My older children have recently introduced my 14 month old into the show and she seems to enjoy it.

I think that any child that is beginning to find a love for reading will enjoy this book series. Each book has a nice little story that teachers the reader a lesson and at the end there are some discussion questions.

[Nancy Kotkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series offered by Scholastic's Branches imprint of early chapter books. Lots of visual support for the text, making it perfect for emergent readers and children transitioning from picture books into chapter books. The diary format produces text in a conversational style, further enhanced through the abundant use of speech bubbles. The protagonist, Eva, is a likable, creative problem-solver who likes to involve and support her friends. Each volume contains comprehension questions at the back of the book.

In this third title of the series, Miss Featherbottom is getting married, so Eva organizes her classmates to help plan the wedding.

[Alicia Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am blazing through this series. It's adorable. We get a special wedding in this one and Eva and all her friends are very excited. As someone who is currently planning a wedding, I enjoyed the silliness that a class could plan an entire wedding in less then a week. And the humor runs well throughout. This may be my new favorite early chapter book series.

For: fans of owls; fans of weddings; readers wanting a diary format and fun illustrations.

Possible red flags: theft (though unintended as malicious); insults.

[MrsMacClass · Rating 3 out of 5]

ML My book review is on a book called Owl Diaries. Eva's teacher is getting married! This was a very
awesome book! My faverite part was when Eva got a plan to do a secret wedding for her teacher.
Eva has a friend named Lucy Beekerman. They have sleepover's all the time!! On there sleepover's
they make to do list's.

Did you know that owl's sleep in the day and are awake at night.

I would recommend people who like animals.

[aarifa · Rating 1 out of 5]

had to read to my sister. It counts, you know.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute chapter book about an owlet named Eva Wingdale. The premise is Eva has a diary to keep track of her adventures. This is the only book I've read in the series.

[Amanda Lechel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this aloud to meadow.

[Penney Letbetter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the illustrations and the plot. Sometimes I felt like I was having to look through too many illustrations, but that didn't happen often. This is a cute series and I am excited to introduce to the students at my school.

[Kasey Desmond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking character development throughout the work. The use of Eva as an unreliable narrator urges the reader delay criticisms of less palatable characters. Even so, how much are we willing to let Sue get away with?

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish weddings were that easy to plan! Not that I would know firsthand but I did help two of my best friends with their wedding and just that was exhausting.

[Eliza · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the journal aesthetic throughout the book what with the lined paper, a typeface that mimics handwriting, and illustrations that look like colored paper.

I had mixed feelings about the puns. I was fine with Owlifornia, pinephones (pinecones + telephones), owlementary, flap-tastic, feathercut, Winglish, owlsome, owliverse, wing-credible, The Hootles, Wingdale, Beakman, Clawson, and Featherbottom; but I thought flaperrific, owlman, and flappy-fabulous were too much of a stretch. Squirrelly as an insult seemed bigoted against squirrels. (It does seem a bit implausible for them to constantly reference their owlishness in their choice of words and names, but this type of story doesn't need to be realistic and wouldn't be totally realistic anyway. I mean come on. They're talking owls.)

[Cadee · Rating 5 out of 5]

"There was a wedding and a birthday party and Miss Featherbottom [bouts of laughter] and her boyfriend got married on Saturday. Rex, the dinosaur, took Miss Featherbottom's necklace but then Sue Clawson flew by and said something really mean. The necklace was very special to Miss Featherbottom, it belonged to her grandmother. The dinosaur took it because he likes shiney things. She did get it back on her wedding day. Susan was making the wedding dress so she really was nice all along even though she said mean things. The wedding dress was so shiney [look, Mom!] Um, they even made a cake for Miss Featherbottom. Whose party was it? It was Sue Clawson's birthday party! Sue's mom was a fashion designer and helped make the dress." -Cadee, age 7

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like other books in Scholastic's Branches series, this is a mix of early chapter book and comic book. There are lots of colour pictures with speech bubbles and colourful To Do Lists and large font text. It works well for Miss 3 (although it can get frustrating for me when she wants to point at every single speech bubble) and there are enough colour pictures that she can sit down and 'read' the book to herself.

Miss 3 and I like to explore different books at the library and try to get different ones out every week or so; it's fun for both of us to have the variety and to look at a mix of new & favourite authors.

[Pinky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miss Featherbottom is getting married and her owlementary school class has winged together to create a secret wedding club to help with the many wedding duties. Another totally cute, totally teamwork Owl Diary, with a little mystery thrown in for good measure.

[Jessica S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite in the series, but my 4 and 5 year old enjoyed it. As always, the illustrations are bright and go perfectly with the story--a good way to transition from picture book to chapter book while still holding my kids' attention.

[Tia Garrigues · Rating 4 out of 5]

cute stories for my 4yo

[amypete · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first grader loves these books. Cute, colorful illustrations, clever "owl" speak, good lessons, and sweet characters.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

EM loves this series too!

[Jocelin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very cute series and so much fun to read!

[Laurel Pate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous little series for Little Kids.

[Justin Karras · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review by an 8 year old

“This book is really good and I like weddings” words from my 8 year old. She can relate to the school situations. Good for her reading level.

[Lara Samuels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beginning chapter book with lots of dialogue. Not the most complex or interesting storyline but my students seem to be enjoying the series. I did like the reading challenge at the end.

[Biarrowitzgmail.Com · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book even though I don't like reading. Simple funny and great for kids

[Jeannette Albertos Pelton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is wonderful for my 1st grader. She enjoys the play on words, and I like the lessons on friendship.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too cutsie for me, but I'm not the target audience.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Beth Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet and fun, with great illustrations and design. Read aloud to Gwen.