3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Puffy and the formidable foe is a very colorful fable about a cat (called Puffy) who one day decided to leave home and go hunting. He ,however, wasn’t prepared for the events that followed.
Being my very first review, I obviously chose Puffy and the formidable foe due to the number of pages it has. So I was really surprised that 12 pages could give me this much to think about. The authors appear to posses great understanding in infant education as evidenced by the nice study structure imbibed within the pages of the book. Every page possesses rhyming new words for kids for them to enjoy and recite.
One thing I really like about this book is that it makes no assumptions and takes it time to direct parents and older people on how to ice use it. At first glance, this looks like a poorly designed children's book. However upon further thought, one can understand the appeal it will have to children at an infant age.The color pencils used are very familiar to kids and therefore they can easily try to reproduce some of the contents of the book.
As far as organisation is concerned, the book stays true to its title and does little to stray off topic. This is an essential characteristic for any children's book as many children do not yet posses the ability to maintain focus in stories that have subplots and multiple scenes. The book excels here by presenting the story of puffy in a sequential flow of events that can be easily recollected.
Even though the number of lines of text was very scant,I noticed a very beautiful use of foreshadowing. The 'formidable foe' was introduced and mentioned a number of times before its real identity was revealed at the end of the fable, thus enabling guesses and discussions during the reading season and keeping it somewhat suspenseful.
Inasmuch as I understand and have come to love the color specifications of this book, I feel that more work could have been done on the actual drawings. In my tender years (aged 5), I could have bettered the strokes in this book easily and I am sure that there are some young kids who are as talented. This is not to say that the drawings are bad (they are), but they look like diagrams that a kid has drawn instead of what a kid would like to imitate or draw inspiration from. Just looking at the mushrooms on page 11 blinded me. If this is a new trend however, pardon me.
All in all, I rate Puffy and the formidable foe a 3 out of 4 stars because it has everything one would want in a children’s book- new words for learning, excitement and a good moral lesson. Kudos to the authors.They should expect it to be well received.
******
Puffy and the Formidable Foe
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Kwao Gabriel's review? Post a comment saying so!
