Ralph and the Rocket Ship: Ready-to-Read Level 1

by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, Henry Cole (Illustrator)

Meet Ralph! He loves all things that go, and he especially loves rocket ships. Oh—and he’s Katy Duck’s best dog pal, Get to know him in this Level 1 Ready-to-Read story for beginning readers.

“A rocket ship can take me
up to the stars,”
said Ralph.

“A rocket ship can take me
to the moon!”

“A rocket ship can take me
to planets far, far, away!
Zip–zoom–whoosh!”

All Ralph wants is a rocket ship. So he asks his mom for one. “Too big,” she tells him. Ralph asks his dad. “Too tall,” he tells Ralph. What will Ralph do? With a little bit of imagination, a stack! stack!, a bang! bang!, and a tape, tape, tape, tape!, Ralph soon has his rocket ship. And it’s even big enough to fit his good pal Katy Duck, too!

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Space

24 pages, Paperback

Published September 13, 2016

About the author

Alyssa Satin Capucilli was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1957. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, and pursued her interest in dance, becoming a professional dancer and dance instructor. Though Capucilli had written stories, poems, and even puppet shows as a child, she didn't consider a career as a writer until after her own two children were born. To this day she sees herself as both a dancer and a writer, and the two professions complement each other nicely: dancing is, in her words, “telling stories in another way,” and readers of her children's books can attest to the rhythm of her language. Since 1994, she has written more than 15 books for children, and her work has been translated into French, Hebrew, Afrikaans, Greek, and Bulgarian.

Capucilli lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, with her husband and children. They have a chocolate Labrador retriever named Huckleberry, who likes to watch the author at work.

Reviews

[Stephanie]

Simple Text colorful pictures! Perfect use of imagination by Ralph the Dog who loves transportation and is wishing to fly to the moon in a rocket ship!

[Bethany]

Read for lexile project
Lexile: 340
Ready to Read: Level One

It's interesting that the publisher puts this book at level one. The big font and limited number of words on page certainly indicates it is a level one book, but the difficulty of the words is not a level one. I think, to better indicate its level, it should have smaller font.

[Jessica]

Ralph wants a rocket ship to take him to outer space, but his mother gives him his toy train instead. His father gives him his tractor. But Ralph still wants a rocket ship. Katy Duck makes an appearance at the end.

[Linda]

Very easy reader by Alyssa Capucilli (who wrote the Biscuit book series). Ralph makes his own rocket and it "took him wherever he wanted to go."

[Jesse]

A wonderful omage to the cultivation of imagination!

[Angela De Groot]

Fun to read. Love the illustrations.

[Holliferous]

The parents were super lame. WHY CANT RALPH HAVE A ROCKET SHIP? But my son wants to reread this a few more times so that's good I guess. I'm going to change the words for the parents into something better, like "not until your birthday" and "we dont have one today, Ralph "

[Jillian]

Technically, this was a 2-star book. I was actually appalled by the laziness of Ralph's parents. "No, I won't encourage your interests. Go play with the toys you already have." The last page also hit one of my pet peeves - "By the way, this is totally a Katy Duck book!"
But it gained a whole star back from me because of Ralph's creativity and ingenuity. He didn't let his parents stifle his interest in rocket ships - he built his own out of boxes and used his imagination to travel to new worlds.

You go, Ralph! Don't let anybody bring you down!

[Jillian]

Perseverance and problem solving, imagination and creativity.
The last page seemed disconnected though.