Review: Ellie's Fun Day at the Farm

Ellie's Fun Day at the Farm by Marci Fair
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received an advanced copy of this book from the author to review. But there is a catch - I never asked for it. The accompaning letter said that I "had previously won one of the Ellie books in a Goodreads giveaway". Yes, I did, the very first one. And I made sure to never enter giveaways of these books again. Just so I wouldn't have to write negative reviews. That's an excellent, textbook example of bad marketing! I did win a book in this series before, but did I give it a lot of stars? Did they bother to check?

The letter further prompted me to post a review on Amazon before the publication day, because they "could really use 50+ 5 star reviews". I wouldn't give a book like that five stars even in a good mood, but after reading it I was thoroughly annoyed. So here we go, two stars. At least I do it after the publication day.

As for the book itself, this fifth book is much better than the first one. I can see considerably more effort (and more photoshop skills :) ) put into its creation. It's also a bit more interesting for kids, with some activities and word-play. Still, the language is primitive and there is nothing in there that not in an average autumn-themed "let's go to the farm" picture book. Plus there is a picture of a hen labelled 'rooster'. In normal circumstances, I would check it out of the library, read it once, and give it three stars. even though I know that encouraging kid's creativity is really important, and the fact that a twelve-year old girl can publish books is amazing.

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