Lauren Baratz-Logsted’s The Sisters 8 book series, for beginning readers grade 1 and up, is all about the adventures of octuplet sisters. It’s a great series to get early-reader girls excited about books, and similar in tone to Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. In these books, the kids face Big Questions, solve problems and conquer their fears with smarts, trust in one another, and each girl’s special gift.
Start off with book one, Annie’s Adventures (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $3.99) – From Amazon:
A rather large problem has befallen the Huit girls. (Sisters, actually. Octuplets to be exact.) One particular New Year’s Eve, the girls wait for their mommy to bring them hot chocolate and their daddy to return with more wood for the fire. But they don’t. Mommy and Daddy, that is. They’re gone. Poof! Maybe dead—no one knows for sure.
You must see the problem here. Eight little girls on their own, no mommy or daddy to take care of them. This is not a good thing. So now these little girls, must take care of themselves. Get to school, cook the meals, feed the cats (eight of them, too), and pay the bills. They can’t ask for help, oh no. Any self-respecting adult would surely call in social services, and those well-meaning people would have to split them up. After losing their parents, being split up would be completely unbearable.
At the same time, the question remains:What happened to Mommy and Daddy? The Sisters Eight (as they are called, affectionately and otherwise) are determined to find out. Luckily, they do seem to have someone or something helping them. Notes keep appearing behind a loose brick in the fireplace. It’s a good old-fashioned mystery with missing (or dead) parents, nosy neighbors, talking refrigerators, foul-smelling fruitcake (is there any other kind?), and even a little magic. Eight little girls, eight cats, and one big mystery—let the fun begin!
Annie’s Adventures, wherein the girls’ parents go missing and the girls learn each one has a power and gift. Annie, being the oldest, is the first to discover hers.
Durinda’s Dangers, wherein Durinda, second in line, discovers her power and gift. Boy, is her power a doozy!
The third book in the series is Georgia’s Greatness (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $5.99) – From Amazon:
The Sisters Eight are back in a new adventure! This time, Georgia gets her chance to be the hero–if she doesn’t completely mess things up!
In the first two installments of the Sisters Eight, we met the sisters (octuplets) and their eight cats. We discovered Mommy and Daddy disappeared (or died) and that to find out what happened to them, each girl must discover her power and gift. Annie and Durinda both found theirs. We also learned that the girls’ nosy neighbor The Wicket is very interested in what Mommy was working on before she disappeared (or died).
In this, the third book, the plot thickens: Mrs. McGullicudy, the girls’ teacher, is AWOL, and the substitute teacher is too beautiful to be believed (in your narrator’s humble opinion.) Does her beautiful facade hide an evil soul? (These are books. Of course it does.) And Georgia makes a blunder that could keep the girls’ from ever finding their parents. Are the Sisters Eight doomed to live alone forever?
Check out the entire The Sisters 8 book series here.