In December, I introduced you to a new children’s book, The Dragon and the Turtle. I really liked the story line and follow-up ideas at the end of the book. I was excited for the next book to become available especially since I felt it was a book that appealed to boys.
The Dragon and the Turtle Go on Safari
Camping outside in the dark scares Padraig and Roger, but they choose to be courageous. They even brave the unknown to rescue someone smaller and weaker.
Momma C’s Thoughts: Cute plot with lots of potential. Sadly the plot gets lost in a lot of words and the humor flies over the head of a 4 to 8 year old.
About half way through the book I realized what was going on. Bubs pointed out that the raccoon had elephant ears and nose. We stopped and went back to the beginning and realized that when the Dragon and Turtle heard the noise, the real animal was illustrated. When they discussed what the animal was (in their minds), the illustrator combines the real animal and what they thought they heard (the elephant looking raccoon).
The Turtle uses pirate phrases as he talks. My kiddos didn’t understand these. Other comments needed my explanation as well – jungle fever, s’more, quarry, noble deed, etc. Because there were so many words and abstract concepts to my four and six year old, they lost interest very quickly. I found this book hard to read because of all the jumping of the sentences and wordiness.
I really hate rating this book low because I did really enjoy the first book The Dragon and the Turtle. I hope that the author will write more Dragon and Turtle books. But, I hope that the writing will be appropriate for the target age group and smoother to read.
Thank you to Waterbrook for the opportunity to review this book.
The turtle in the illustrations reminds me of the Franklin books. Have you read them?