The Lucky Luke Hunting Adventures is a set of ten chapter books and two picture books written by Kevin Lovegreen and Illustrated by Margarita Sikorskaia. Nathan Boemer illustrated two of the books, the chapter book Whitetail Adventures and the picture book The Swamp. The books have won the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards. The chapter books are meant for readers in grades two through six. The two picture books are meant for readers in kindergarten through third grade. You can purchase the books separately or as a set. You can also purchase a set of the chapter books or the entire twelve books as a set. The set of ten books costs $83.50. The full set of twelve books costs $120.50. There is also a coloring book available on the website for $8.99. The books do come in both hardcover and paperback.

The picture books were in hardcover which is perfect for a picture book. The length of each of the picture books is a good length being around thirty pages and the illustrations were outstanding, making them excellent read-aloud books. Each page would have a large illustration that either took the entire page or created a border for the text. The colors used in the illustrations set the mood for the story brilliantly. I would still read these aloud to smaller children, they are not appropriate for emergent readers to try and read on their own.

We had the chapter books in both hardcover and softcover and they worked well both ways. My students prefer hardcover books because they are sturdier, but the softcovers seemed durable enough. Both hardcover and softcover were bound well. The chapter books did not need to be read in a certain order, but there were some stories where Luke was younger and others where he was older, and they could be read that way.

The Lucky Luke books are beautifully written. The stories are engaging and hold interest with short chapters and interesting illustrations. The book handles the subjects of hunting and fishing well. The stories keep readers’ interest and work in proper safety at the same time. I appreciated the care given to the family relationships and the values displayed.

In our environment, we used the books for our daily reading. I used the picture books for our read-aloud time, but my students read the chapter books mostly by themselves because they could not wait for the next read aloud. My first-grade reluctant reader enjoyed the stories enough that he made Lucky Luke’s Fish On! his first chapter book. The books are all based on real stories and there is a Lucky Luke, which makes the series even more engaging.

One hardcover we did read together was Whitetail Adventures. This book is one of the shorter chapter books, which range from sixty pages to over one hundred pages. Whitetail Adventures is sixty-two pages. The story describes an impatient Luke waiting for a deer. His movements, while waiting, alert a deer and he gets a shot off at him but does not take the deer down. Later, his sister does get the exact same deer; Luke must put aside his feelings and be happy for his sister. Again, the story illustrates proper handling and safety considerations. It also shows Luke navigating his family relationship and feelings of jealousy.

I would recommend this series of books. The books are a fun and enjoyable read. They are the kind of books you look for to foster the love of reading in children. They have solid values and character weaved into them. I feel confident that these are books that my students will return to again and again.

-Product review by Melissa Bontadelli, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, October 2020