Official Review: Talon by Gigi Sedlmayer

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stoppoppingtheP
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Official Review: Talon by Gigi Sedlmayer

Post by stoppoppingtheP »

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Talon" by Gigi Sedlmayer.]
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3 out of 4 stars
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Talon: Flight for Life is written by Gigi Sedlmayer. It is the third book in the series Talon. It is a children’s book. The themes that the book explores are friendship, courage, and determination.

The main feature of this series of books is the relationship that Matica has formed with several condors. The particular condor that is Matica’s friend, is named Talon. He seems to understand when she talks to him. His parents, Tamo and Tima, are also friends of Matica. Matica has a disability which hinders the growth of her body, and as a result of this, she is able to fly on Talon.

Matica’s family live in a remote village in Peru. In this book, Matica goes on a journey with her father. She and her father walk through the forest, passing villages in order to get to the nearest town to get supplies and do other important business. This is basically an adventure story, where she sees new creatures and learns new things along the way. Matica is a very inquisitive child and has a good relationship with animals.

There are many positive aspects to this book, however, there are several negatives to this book as well. Firstly, I did come across many spelling and grammatical errors. I took into consideration that some of the characters in the book were not English speakers and they spoke broken English. Besides that, the narrative itself has a lot of grammatical and spelling errors. In addition, I found the story to be quite tedious at times. The manner in which the story is written is that every single action is described, every thought and emotion is expressed in detail. There are no real leaps in the storytelling, thus making the story much longer.

What I really liked about this book was the fact that the main character is a little girl with a disability. The book also touches on the episodes of depression that Matica experiences as a result of her disability, and how her family acts as a support structure. I also liked that the book is very descriptive about the plants and animals they encounter on their journey.

I was deliberating on whether to give the book 2 or 3 stars. However, I decided to rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. Although it has some grammatical errors and can be tedious at times, overall, the story was sweet and interesting.

In my opinion, I think that there are many people who would enjoy this book, particularly children. However, I also think that several people would find the pace of the book too slow and get easily bored.

******
Talon
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Post by Kat Berg »

I love that this book features an other-abled little girl and highlights her capabilities as well as some of the special challenges that come with living in her particular body. I am sooo picky about children's books being grammatically correct. As they are being read to, and reading, they are learning the rules of language. Special care to ensure they are written with accuracy is a must! I am glad you enjoyed the book anyway. Thanks for the review.
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Post by Cristina Chifane »

I like the fact that the protagonist is a disabled child who is supported by his family and finds comfort in nature and the animal world. What I cannot understand are the spelling and grammatical mistakes especially since you mentioned that this was the third book in the Talon series.
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Post by Libs_Books »

It's a lovely idea for a book, but I don't think I'd choose to give this one to any of my young relatives, because the errors might cause difficulties for people who aren't reading-confident. Thanks for a helpful and informative review.
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Post by bookowlie »

Great review! This book is still on the review list so I particularly appreciate your opinions. It's a shame there were errors, especially since this is a children's book. Kids could get the wrong idea about punctuation. I love that the main character is disabled and the story shows how she deals with those challenges.
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Post by Dolor »

I won't bother to read this book because this is the third book. I would love to read the first and the second books first before reading this book. The errors made me decide to bypass reading them all. Thanks for your honest review.
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