3 out of 4 stars
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Fawn and his friends are back for another installment of fun and excitement in The Adventures of Fawn: Book 2: The Ona Pendulum. Starting immediately where book one left off, author Al E. Boy takes his readers on a journey that shows them how Santa Claus got his debut, where his giving of Christmas gifts started, and how Santa found himself among the elves. Beyond this backstory, evils from the Kringle brothers’ past is lurking to threaten life as everyone at the North Pole knows it. Will Fawn, and the rest of this band of loveable characters, save Santa and Christmas?
This book comes to the reader in essentially two parts. The first focuses more on the past and gives a glimpse of how some of the characters get to where they are today. It shows how two toy maker brothers, Kris and Karl Kringle, anger their benefactors by giving away some of the toys they have made around the Christmas season. These actions cause a chain reaction of events that gets Kris involved with a band of elves, makes some enemies, and eventually takes him to the North Pole immune from aging. The second part sees the return of some of the demons from their past, and a struggle of everyone involved to ensure that Christmas, along with all its traditions, continues.
This was a fun, relatively light hearted, book that attempts to provide a unique story surrounding the history of the season. The characters involved in this children's tale are dynamic and loveable. The woodland creatures Fawn, Bunny, Terry (the tern), Whitey (the polar bear cub), and more, provide a certain level of emotion and humorous innocence that ties the whole story together. As well, all the other characters you'd expect in a Christmas story, Santa, the future Mrs. Claus, and a cheeky wizard, complete this cast of characters. What I liked the best about this book is the competent mix of realistic possibilities with just enough fantasy elements to keep the magic of the holidays alive.
I did have some fundamental issues with this book and how it was put together. First, it is still unclear to me on the intended audience's age group. Some of the language used (especially that of the animals) leads me to believe that it is for younger children, but it's length and surprisingly large quantity of deaths in the book makes me think otherwise. That being said, older children may find the plot, language and dialogue quite simple at times. Next, I did come across several spelling and grammatical errors which seemed to slightly increase near the end of the book. Finally, and what I disliked the most, was the author's addiction to Ellipses. It got to the point where it was almost distracting how often Boy employed those three little dots.
This book really is cute and has the potential to embed itself in the annals of holiday literature. Due to the shortfalls outlined above, particularly the confusion over the target audience, I bestow upon this book a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. If you are in the mood for a new holiday tale or if you enjoyed the first in the series, The Adventures of Fawn: Book 2: The Ona Pendulum may not be for you. If children's books or ones with potentially ambiguous age-ranges aren't your cup of tea, you may want to avoid this one.
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The Adventures of Fawn
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