2 out of 4 stars
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Serendipity Mystery, written by R.F. Kristi is a unique children’s book with a creative twist. From the beginning, the author sets the scene of a different tradition (in this case French), but also introduces the concept of travel, exploration and curiosity to young children. Even the idea of heritage and culture are introduced in this short story, which I thought was a lovely touch. The illustrations were great, and the author thoughtfully includes a page at the beginning of a picture and profile of each character in the group of friends.
To begin with the title, I thought that this was too complicated for children aged 7-11. The word serendipity is a word that even many adults do not know the meaning of. I therefore felt that the author needs to review the intended audience and what the purpose of the book is. For example, if the purpose is to teach children new words, then ideally there should be a glossary at the back to explain the more difficult words. If the purpose is just to write a nice story for children to read with their parents, then I feel that there is room for the author to make the book more accessible to read. This is particularly due to the young 7-11 age group, which the book is described to be aimed at.
Staying with the theme of language, I felt that there were many random words used in the story at a level much higher than the targeted audience. In particular, these words are ironically some which are very hard to explain to children. For instance, the words “retorted”, “skulking” and “virtue” were used. So again, the purpose of the book becomes unclear through this use of language.
The author writes this story in the first-person perspective, which I think is a refreshing change to third-person narration of books aimed at 7-11-year-old children. I feel that this will help to spark the imagination of children, which is what reading should be all about! I also thought it was very amusing that the main animal character was narrating her diary as if she were living the life of a human. There were a few other playful additions to the main storyline; such as encounters with monkeys and meetings with elephants.
Some very small inconsistencies I found were with the presentation of dates and times in the diary form of the story- the author should either choose to write dates or days of the week. The oscillation between either could be confusing for children. Lastly, I do not think there was a need for bullet points when the main character is writing in her diary. Overall, it was a distinctive read which I would rate 2 out of 4 stars.
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Serendipity Mystery
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