3 out of 4 stars
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Puffy and the Formidable Foe by Ann M. Hannon is an illustrated children's book. Puffy is a kitten who strays far from home when he comes upon what he thinks is another 'kitten'.This 'kitten' is actually a baby skunk who sprays Puffy and makes him stinky. Puffy races back home and his owner gives him a bath to remove the smell.
I think this is a cute story and I think it would make a wonderful bedtime story. When Puffy meets the strange ‘kitten’, he flees and returns home. From this scene, kids are able to see the dangers in exploring by themselves and meeting strangers. I think this book touches on a great topic about knowing what to do if you are by yourself and meet a stranger. I think this book is a great way for parents to talk to their kids about stranger danger.
The illustrations were hand drawn and I think they add a nice touch to the story. The illustrations cover the whole page and there are eight illustrated pages that make up the fifteen page book. I really like the picture of where Puffy is fleeing from the skunk, because you can tell that Puffy got some of the stink on him.
There were some big words like ‘obscene’ and ‘formidable’ that the author used. The author included these words to “ encourage a rich vocabulary”. I think that this is ok if parents are reading it with their kids, but kids who are reading it by themselves will definitely struggle with reading and understanding this book. However, I liked how the author included rhyming words in the story as it helps kids to identify what rhyming words are.
The author also included a coloring page for children to color. I thought this was a wonderful way to get kids more involved with the story.
The only thing that I didn't like about this book was that there was a few grammatical errors. For example, ‘Puffy’ wasn't capitalized on one page.
I rate this book a 3 out of 4 stars. If it wasn't for the few grammatical errors that I saw, I would have given it a 4 out of 4 stars. I think this is a great book for parents to read to their children at night. I recommend this book to kids from three to eleven years old, provided that they have someone to explain the meaning of some words.
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Puffy and the Formidable Foe
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