3 out of 4 stars
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It has been a long time since I last picked up a children’s book to read. To be honest, sometimes I like reading such books, firstly, because I am curious to see whether I’ll be able to comprehend the book from a child’s perspective, and, secondly, because the whole experience sincerely amuses me.
In addition, as an adult, I think that it takes an entirely different type of effort to write something that would satisfy the capricious taste of any child, and to manage to keep his (or her) interest. In line with that train of thought, when I read a children’s book, the style of the author is always of interest to me. I ask myself whether I would be moved by the story if I were a small child.
I was constantly asking myself these exact questions when I was reading Toni the Superhero by R.D. Base, which is aimed at the youngest readers aged up to 4 years old. The book introduces a brand-new superhero – the little boy, Toni, who is gifted with extraordinary powers, but in the book we see him do the most ordinary things that form part of the everyday life of a regular young boy.
Being a mother of three young boys, the author, R.D. Base, certainly knows how to pick interesting stories to read to her children. Most importantly, she knows how to write them, which is apparent from Toni the Superhero. The book is very easy to assimilate, and it is full of vividly colourful illustrations that should appeal visually to any child of the aforesaid age group.
Moreover, Toni the Superhero teaches a child the most commonly used basic words and expressions. What I truly like about the book is that the main character is a superhero. I consider this as the key to capturing the interest of its young audience because every kid loves to dream about being a superhero like Batman, Spiderman or Ironman.
The only drawback of Toni the Superhero is that, unless the readers are fortunate enough to have been born into a gender-neutral household, it is likely that more boys than girls will be attracted to the story. Such attraction is due to a child’s tendency to identify with the main character in a story, which, in the present case, is a boy.
I also disliked the lack of a well-constructed plot. It was good to see that Toni performs different household activities, and that he does good deeds, but I personally think that it would be a great idea to try to incorporate his behaviour into an interesting and simple story, rather than just portraying otherwise isolated incidents.
The above is why I wish to award Toni the Superhero 3 out of 4 stars. Overall, this is a wonderful book, with outstanding appeal for children, because of the awesome illustrations and the memorable character concerned.
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Toni the Superhero
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