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| Book Cover via Amazon.com |
Opinion
Maxine contacted me from my blog and asked me to review her book with an honest review. "Ronaldo: The Phantom Carrot Snatcher" is a children’s book, so I included the little Y’s in the process. Both Little Y’s helped me out by listening and reviewing the pictures.
My son’s initial thoughts. “I don’t like carrots.” Followed by “That’s not a reindeer. That’s a moose. Reindeer's are only Rudolph,” but he’s five, so, I’m not sure that’s even remotely a book critique.
My daughter’s initial thoughts. “Huh, how does he keep his hat on over his horns when he files without glue?” I’m going to throw this out there, that is not a book critique, and she’s nine, There is a reason I’m the book reviewer, and they are not.
As far as my initial personal thoughts, this is a brightly colored book with a beautiful cover that is full of action. That action presented was mirrored with the first pages and the first chapter onto the rest of the book. It’s lovely, the illustrations in the book are glorious, and I love the way the flow of the book goes. Also, my initial thoughts, this book is not a Christmas Holiday specific book. This can be read anytime, not just before Christmas. Oh sure, it has those Holiday themes, but it’s not dependent on them.
Critiques time. I asked my children what they had to critique.
My son: “Carrots and cocoa are gross. EWWWW”
My daughter “That one reindeer is a meany face, and he should be in time out. He’s mean.”
What I can say about both critiques, they were very much into the book. I read this to them over a couple of nights, and both of my children liked it. As far as my critiques, let’s talk about pacing a bit. This book paces beautifully, but if you blink too fast, you could miss something. There is a part that involves eggs, and my son started to sing, so we had to re-read that a couple of times. That said, it’s a fun book, and anyone can figure out what is going on once they are back on track.
Aside from that, I have no critiques. It tells a complete story. The grammar, spelling, and margins are aligned with precision. Whoever edited this book did a beautiful job, I’m seriously impressed.
Here are some other positive things about this book. The story is written engagingly to keep you the adult enjoying it, and the children into it. Your kids, if they are like my kids (despite how it may seem), should be able to follow the book. It’s a fun book, the adventures are good, and it has a lot of excellent lessons. Things like, don’t yell at random people, you can scare them. Also, be kind to everyone, or it will get you back in the end. There is a lovely section where there could have been a big argument, and the MC handled it beautifully. This is all good stuff for my kids to have learned.
Positive things the little Y’s noticed.
“I like Ernie, and she’s cute!” My son said. He now wants a dog that looks like Ernie.
“Awwww They are so sweet,” My daughter said pointing at one of the drawings where two of the characters had fallen asleep.
The other aspect I wanted to bring up was just how excellent the adult reinforcement is in this book. The adults know when to explain how things can improve, but there isn’t anything cruel about it. There also isn’t anything unnecessary going on with the adult interactions.
Score
Score here, I had the kids help me out. WIth a unanimous consensus to the math, “Ronaldo: The Phantom Carrot Snatcher” has earned a 98/100. “Give them twenty million stars!” my son said. Well, I can’t do that, Goodreads and Amazon limit me to 5, so this is a 5 Star review on Amazon and Goodreads!
If you have kids who like a story that is an adventure in the winter, this may be the right book for you.
