Well, here it is. The first review and I'm actually quite excited about it as I just discovered this book a couple of days ago and loved it.
"Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon
This is a delightful book about a little bat that gets lost and is raised by birds. It is a wonderful story about the things that make us different, yet the same. I found the writing beautiful (something that can't always be said about children's books - even the excellent ones) and the illustrations make the bats "pretty" without distorting their real appearance. In other words, girls won't be disgusted by their appearance, but boys won't think they look too "frou-frou". At the back are two pages of "Bat Notes" - which is all kinds of information about bats. When a children's book teaches me something while still remaining true entertainment to a child, well I think that's just pretty cool.
The appropriate age would probably be between 4 and 8 - although a 9 or 10 year old might still enjoy reading this on their own.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Book Review: Stellaluna
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2 comments:
Hi-- stopping by from the UBP.
This was a cute book, but if you want to pursue this author/illustrator further I would suggest avoiding Verde or reading it all the way through before sharing it with your son.
That story is sort of nice in its "growing up doesn't have to change us" way, but its rampant negativity about growing up (something some kids have issues with already-- "old fogies" rather than "respect your elders") sort of squashes that message.
Anyway, just a random warning
Amy Jane,
I did read "Verde" and agree that is is not as charming as "Stella Luna". Like you, I appreciated the message that you don't need to change just because you grow up. I believe that Ms Cannon tried to counter the negativity by having the "old" snakes talk about their "wild" days but didn't really expand on that enough.
I do think that it is nice that she writes books about scary animals and makes them perhaps a little less scary.
Miss Stacey
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