2 out of 4 stars
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Puffy and the Formidable Foe, by Marie Lepkowski and Ann Marie Hannon, is a short illustrated children’s story set in a poetic format. It is geared toward very young children with the intent of delivering a message of thinking before acting. The assumption here is that adults will be reading to the children and take the lead in explaining the story.
Let’s start off with the artwork. Pictures are intended to draw the reader into the story, capturing attention and making the reader more curious about the story and presenting the focus. Unfortunately, I felt the artwork was rather plain and uninviting, leaving most of the pictures with at least some plain white background, when it could have been filled with a lot more detail and color. The basic quality of art was not poor per se, but it did little to entice my interest. In addition, the pictures seemed to skip an important part of the story, which would have added to make the story more dramatic: that is, when the cat received the unfortunate delivery. This was hinted at strongly, but not shown directly. It went from a close-up picture to a zoom-out with simple wiggly lines. The aftermath described what would follow afterward, but I felt it could have been done in a better way. So I felt it was not strong enough to make much of an impact.
In my opinion, pets should be portrayed as loved characters—by their owners. Yet the only connection with the owner was an arm washing it with shampoo, a definite negative experience. In addition, cats are prone to roam—it’s in their nature and it’s quite hard to break them of it. The resolution seemed to be forcing the cat to make a decision that would go against its nature. The endearing factor, at least to me, is missing.
I thought the rhymes were thought out, and especially important was the underlining of the words, drawing the reader to the new words. I wouldn’t suggest “rewarding good reading” with coloring the page, however, because I don’t see the coloring as a reward for any child. Simply invite the child to color if he/she wanted and perhaps add other details and colors as warranted.
Puffy and the Formidable Foe, by Marie Lepkowski and Ann Marie Hannon attempts to bring a lesson to a child’s thinking process, but in the end I felt it did little more than present a lesson with pictures inserted. I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review and rate it as 2 out of 4 stars.
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Puffy and the Formidable Foe
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