Review by Carol Cisne -- Puffy and the Formidable Foe

[Carol Cisne]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Puffy and the Formidable Foe" by Marie Lepkowski and Ann Marie Hannon.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Puffy and the Formidable Foe by Marie G. Lepkowski, Ann M. Hannon, and Margaret B. Hannon is a short illustrated children’s book. The story is about Puffy, a cat, who strayed from home to hunt for a rat. While wandering through the woods he encountered something quite different, a skunk! Puffy quickly realized that not all critters are friendly even if they seem like ‘a kitty that does not meow’. He quickly returns home, smelly from his run-in with the skunk, and is cleaned up by his owner. Puffy realized that it’s best to not wander too far from the safety of home and not every critter is a friendly critter.

Many children’s books teach a core moral or lesson within a story in a way that can be scary but Puffy and the Formidable Foe teaches these messages through a friendlier and more lighthearted manner. Rather than instilling fear in children like many classic fairy tales this book is in line with many contemporary themes. The most prominent messages that I found were: it’s ok to explore but not to wander too far from home; you are not going to get along with everyone; and it’s ok to return home to regroup from a bad encounter or any reason (taken from page 13: ‘and whenever you’re lonely, or feel you should roam. Think of Puffy, and say, ‘there’s no place like home!’’). I found all these themes appropriate for children especially since they are learning and experiencing so many new things at school and their surroundings.

The book, Puffy and the Formidable Foe, is 16 pages, 8 of which are full-page illustrations. While for many books this is quite short, for a children’s book it is a good length. Many times children don’t have the patience to sit through longer books or are accustomed to reading a few short books at a time. For a children’s short story the three authors really went to a great effort to make this a viable tool for teaching. They included discussion prompts in the beginning of the book, underlined words for vocabulary enrichment, and word rhyming. It also includes interactive activities aside from vocal ones such as coloring. The marker illustrations can be a bit crude on some pages yet overall they have a folk art characteristic that makes them endearing. I can see children encouraged to color their own depictions of the story since the illustrations would match most kid’s drawing skill level.

I imagine many young readers enjoying this book and adults reading this book to much younger children. It’s an enriching book that has a lot to offer. I think it’s a great way to make advanced vocabulary more accessible to younger children. Additionally, I think this book is an excellent proxy for prompting discussion between children and their parents, guardian, and/or teachers on more abstract topics and experiences. And finally, I enjoyed reading this book as well.

I give this book 3 out of 4 stars. I cannot give it the full 4 stars due to some grammatical errors, missing punctuation, and some formatting of pages that break the fluidity of the book. A formatting example that really stood out would be on page 10 where a whole-page illustration looks like a scanning error. The whole image is abstracted. These errors do not detract from the intentions or story of this book. If these errors are corrected in the next edition then I can definitely give it a perfect rating.

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Puffy and the Formidable Foe
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[Izesicle]

The whole page illustration that looked like a collage of smaller drawings was not good for me as well.

I rated this book 3 out of 4 stars myself. Feel free to check out my review when you have time.