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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Review: The Unfriendly Dragon

The Unfriendly Dragon by Brae Wyckoff
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Well, I actually bought into the colorful descriptions and positive reviews on GR. To think that I asked our library to buy a copy! But they did buy it :(
The book opens with a presentation of the hero, who is an "Ordakian" and "is very similar to a small human, but with really hairy feet". Does it sound familiar? So he with another "ordakian" and a dwarf goes on an adventure, without any mention of the original author or books anywhere (but there are several pages of "reviews", quite fantastic, and an "all rights reserved" statement).
Unfortunately, the heroes are the only thing that Mr. Wyckoff plagiarised. The content is very primitive in all respects: words, syntax, and ideas. I wouldn't recommend even for very young readers, after four it's simply out of the question.

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Review: Born in the Wild: Baby Mammals and Their Parents

Born in the Wild: Baby Mammals and Their Parents by Lita Judge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm pleasantly surprised. It's not just just a book about cute baby animals. And it's not just a book good for learning to read or reading aloud. It's also not simply a picture book with good illustrations. It is a book without obvious mistakes. It's a simple thing to ask for, but I find that most children's books have tons of nonsense. Not this one, both the main story and the details on illustrations are true. The author does indeed know what she writes about.

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Review: Anacondas

Anacondas by Elizabeth Raum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The book is surprisingly good for the genre. I'm impressed for once.

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Review: Ida, Always

Ida, Always by Caron Levis
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

There is a lot of five- and four-stars review, but not so much is heard from those who didn't like the book. Well, I didn't like it. It says that it's based on a real story of two polar bears in a zoo and was inspired by the great sadness of zoo visitors following the death of one of them, Ida. I guess, the author tryed to turn it around and make a book for children of how to cope with a loss of a loved one. First of all, no matter how touching the story is for adults, I don't think it works that way for children, especially grieving children. Second, for a book about real bears, it's anthropocentric to the extreme. Third, I generally don't like books that try to sell readers false hopes, and Ida, Always does exactly that; instead of providing a way to settle and move on it gives some groundless, ephemeral hopes.

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Review: Big Bug

Big Bug by Henry Cole
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A cute book trying to help kids understand relative size and perspective with bright pictures and a few words. It doesn't really work - I doubt anything would work other than going outside and actually seeing the effect - but helps in explanation. Four stars for the effort, there are not enough children's books about things adults take for granted.

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Review: Cicadas

Cicadas by Margaret Hall
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

What did I learn from this children's educational book about cicadas? Oh, so much! There is no information in there beyond very basic common knowledge. Cicadas buzz, mate, lay eggs, and live underground until they mature. Really? Who would have thought? I especially liked the first page: "What are cicadas? Cicadas are flying insects with thick bodies." The end.

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Review: Harry Potter Magic Eye Book: 3D Magical Creatures, Beasts and Beings

Harry Potter Magic Eye Book: 3D Magical Creatures, Beasts and Beings by Magic Eye Inc.
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Yet another parasite on Harry Potter's fame. And not very well done. It seems cheap somehow when there are five goblin's heads on a picture and one of them is "3D". It's much more interesting when "magic" images resolve from an abstract pattern, when you don't know before focusing what's it going to be.

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Review: Detective Dinosaur

Detective Dinosaur by James Skofield
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Such a sweet little book. There are three stories inside and each one is from somewhere else, but with a dinosaur twist and simple words. I can't even recall where this one originated: "We should call the police!" "We are the police, sir"

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Review: Harry Potter: The Creature Vault: The Creatures and Plants of the Harry Potter Films

Harry Potter: The Creature Vault: The Creatures and Plants of the Harry Potter Films by Jody Revenson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

For me this book looks like yet another misunderstanding of the intended audience. It's big-sized, published on high quality paper, with an elaborate cover. And contains behind-the-scenes information. The illustrations are good and information is interesting, but who was it all made for? People interested in movie production details probably don't care about the pompous looks of the book. And kids that buy into this "as if from the magic world" cover need a magical book, not a collection of facts. The book was probably intended for both categories, but doesn't property serve either.

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Review: How Machines Work: Zoo Break!

How Machines Work: Zoo Break! by DK Publishing
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm torn between 3 and 4 stars, so I guess it makes it 3.5, but I'm rounding down anyway.
The premise of the book is stupid, but very funny; the kind of thing that even small kids know is impossible, which makes that much more fun. So we're following attempts of the Sloth and his friend to break free from a zoo. Each of the attempts is more or less well planned, thought trough in respect of technology, and entertaining.

The text is waaay too detailed for my taste. If a kid needs that much detail, a children's book is not a sourse to look up. And if a kid doesn't want those details, why they are there? The text is boring, over-the-head, going at lenghts about things nobody in our family is interested in. If the idea was to develop that technical part of kid's brain, then it failed. To do that you really need to wrap complicated ideas in simple (but not oversimplified of course) and engaging words. This text? It was like reading a manual. I resorted to telling the story in my own words, ignoring the text. Or was it there to educate the parents, so they can spin a tale knowing what's going on?

The props are ingenious! We spent a lot of time catapulting the heroes over the wall. There is only one problem with them - too easy to break. The book won't survive in a library for very long, which is very sad. It wouldn't survive for long even as a house book. But hey, it's a lot of fun at least.


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Review: Star Wars Origami: 36 Amazing Paper-folding Projects from a Galaxy Far, Far Away....

Star Wars Origami: 36 Amazing Paper-folding Projects from a Galaxy Far, Far Away.... by Chris Alexander
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The idea is appealing, but 1) it's not origami sensu stricto; 2) a lot of the projects are ugly; 3) instructions are detailed, but not clear; 4) the book is for ages 9 and up, but a 9 year old would need help, which is a consequence of 3. Overall, not something I'd buy.

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Review: Centipedes

Centipedes by Margaret C. Hall
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Centipedes are... Centipedes have... Centipedes live... Most centipedes... Some centipedes... Most centipedes... Some centipedes... Centipedes have... Each section... Their front legs... Female centipedes... Some females... Young centipedes... They grow... Centipedes use... Centipedes eat... Centipedes have... They sense...

Those are the first words of every single sentence in the book. You can guess that this book can't boast a great sentence variety. Much less varied than the Wiki page on centipedes. But of course kids would pick it up in a library. Because... Centipedes! At least there are no horrible blurbs scintific-wise. That's why it gets solid three stars.

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Review: Pups to the Rescue!

Pups to the Rescue! by Nickelodeon
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The field for the review asks "What do you think?" I prefer not to think about... such things.

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Review: The Stonekeeper

The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was looking for interesting graphic novels for my 5-year-old and thought that maybe this one, with almost 30,000 raitings averaging higher than 4, would be a good choise. The art is good, the story is dark, just what the kids want at that stage when they want to be frightened, right? And yes, my kid liked it, so I will have to suffer through at least one more volume, because he wants to know what happened next. Suffer, because the book is marginal at best. The plot is lame, with a number of discrepancies and poor character building. It so doesn't deserve a place among the best graphic novels for children or 500 essential graphic novels.

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Review: Green in Nature

Green in Nature by Martha E.H. Rustad
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I firmly believe that factual mistakes are absolutely unacceptable in picture books. There is no telling what a kid will remember and how hard it will be to squeeze out that rubbish. That is why this book gets one star from me. A green book about the color green may be a good idea. And I understand that the authors and designers probably don't have a lot of education. But just five minutes of googling would save them from calling duckweed algae. And what duckweed! It even has flowers on that unfortunate picture, which is pretty rare, proving to everyone who can see that it's a flowering plant.

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Review: Rosie's Walk

Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A cute little book for cute little kids. It was fun to read a book with 32 words on 32 pages (no, not one word per page). The illustrations are also hilarious, even though I don't usually like this style. The unusual side of the book is the lack of descriptions. The few words that are there don't really tell the story, unless you are looking at the pictures. Or rather, they tell the story how it's seen from Rosie's point of view, which doesn't really correspond with what really happened. Thus, a lot is left unsaid, giving space for imagination, word-play and discussion. The downside - it can't be one of the first books a kid tries to read him or herself; since the words and the pictures tell two different stories, it makes it impossible for a beginning reader to focus. But it's a great book for reading together. I wish I learnt about it earlier, when my son was three or four; back then it would be very entertaining and educational for him. Now, that he's five, it's not all that educational, but we still had a lot of fun and a nice discussion.

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Review: In the Night Kitchen

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My first thought after reading it was "What was it?" The second one was "No, wait! What was it?" I picked In the Night Kitchen, because it's listed as a children's classic. Since English is not my native language, I was spared this as a kid, but I thought that maybe my son would be interested. And no, turned out he wasn't.

Most of the reviews of this book on Goodreads mention the character's nudity one way or the other. The book is even called "one of the most controversial books in history" due to those pictures of a naked boy. Is it really what makes a book controversial? Mu son didn't even notice/comment on it, neither did I pay it any particular attention.

What I saw in this book was a surreal story. A boy called Mickey dreamt of cooking a cake and saving the day. Great. It is surreal all right, but not in a good way. A surrealism without any particular meaning. Not especially fun, either. I guess it's in the "best kids' books" list because it was written many years ago and a lot of people who make those lists read it in childhood. But I don't think it's a reason enough.

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Review: The Story of Babar: The Little Elephant

The Story of Babar: The Little Elephant by Jean de Brunhoff
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I first learnt about this book from Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science or some other book by Richard Dawkins, I don't remember exactly. What I do remember is that he mentioned Babar as something he used to read to his daughter. It sounded like a reason enough to give it a try.

I wish I didn't. My five-year-old is ok with the book, of course, since he can't recognize in it what I can. I guess in 1933, when it was published, a book like that was totally fine for children; just a normal life, wasn't it? Unfortunately, it's totally not ok now. Too much colonial by any standards.

Babar's loving mother is shot, while he is still a kid (a toddler by the feel of it, since he rides on her back at that moment). He wanders in the forest for a few days, during which he apparently matures enough. Without further ado he comes to a city, where he leads a life of a young gigolo for a few years. Then an accident makes him decide to return to the forest, which he does pompously. Meanwhile, the elephant king is conveniently poisoned, and Babar, having learnt the proper ways in the city, becomes a king (making his cousin he met that very day his queen).

The only way it can be read today is assuming it a social satire. Maybe it even have been that from the beginning, it's hard to judge. But satire is not a genre a kid still reading picture books can understand, so it's definitely not suited for children. The book is described by many as a children's classic, but in my view it's more of a relic.



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Review: Teachers' Night Before Halloween

Teachers' Night Before Halloween by Steven L. Layne
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

If you see this book, don't pick it up. Just don't. It's not a book for the Halloween season. Really, I'm completely at a loss for whom it was written. For children? Surely not. Why would children need to read how much teachers hate Halloween? Besides, it's poorly written, rhymes and rhythm are bumpy, illustrations are not exciting, and the book as a whole is only marginally funny. Besides, school-aged children are a bit too old for a picture book like this. For teachers? Well, teachers are definitely too old for a picture book. Overall, it's a parody book that is more insulting, than funny. People tell those kind of stories as a way to vent frustration, but it doesn't mean those stories are suitable to publish.

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