Review by DDunstock -- Puffy and the Formidable Foe

[DDunstock]

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

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4 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 children’s book about a curious cat who leaves his house initially in search of a rat. In his journey to find the rat, Puffy makes several other discoveries in a vast outside that is full of surprises. However, some of these surprises are not welcome to Puffy, who has never been taught what exactly to expect from the expansive outdoors. Hence, through his curious experiences, Puffy learns a great deal about how to navigate the world and what to embrace or avoid.

As a mother of three and an avid reader, I really enjoyed this children’s book. True to the genre, this will not take an adult more than five minutes to read. So, I read this book a couple of times to myself, and then I printed the PDF in color and shared the story with my children. I felt that reading the book to my children was important prior to writing a book review as my kids are the authors’ intended audience. My three sons, ages five, five, and three, greatly enjoyed this story. They laughed at Puffy’s reactions to his outside encounters and they also enjoyed the rhyming scheme. My sons commented on the cute and witty illustrations and were thrilled that the book included a blank coloring sheet of Fluffy; this certainly added an element of interactivity to the book and spurned conversations about the story between myself and my sons. Any children’s book that motivates my kids is, as a parent, preferred.

Another wonderful part of this story is the tips the author includes before the book specifically designed for the adult who is going to read the book to the children. The author titles this page “Helping Children to Learn with This Book”, and includes six different ways that the story can be utilized to allow children to think critically about Puffy’s story. While my children were coloring the included bonus page, I utilized a few of these tips and found them to be extremely helping in starting a conversation about Puffy and the lessons learned from the story.

I have a difficult time finding any fault with this book. The only thing I would note is the complexity of the language. I personally believe that including difficult words is a great idea for children to see vocabulary they have most likely never seen before. That being said, my three-year-old did not understand several of the words, and my five-year-old twins also had a difficult time with some of the language. This is a very minor negative because the authors' use of verbose language is an obvious teaching point.

Overall, Puffy and the Formidable Foe was a very enjoyable read for my children and I. This story goes beyond just a children's story and creates a whole experience of reading, art, and reading comprehension for the family. I would award this book 4 out of 4 stars, and I would certainly recommend this book to any of my friends with kids, teachers, or people that work with youth.

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Puffy and the Formidable Foe
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Like DDunstock's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Izesicle]

You have great hair :) anyway, i love that you read this with your children and they had a positive reaction to the book.

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

[NL Hartje]

DD, I love that you read this to your children! What a great way to get feedback!

For me, this book scored highly for rhyming and offering the parental discussion syllabus. I was disappointed, however, with Puffy's portrayal. He was illustrated differently on most pages. Some pages he had eyelashes; some pages he did not. Some pages he had a pink nose, whereas on others it was grey or white.

Did any of you notice this? I only rated the book 3/4. Do you think the differing Puffys warranted negative impact on the score?

My review here:
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