2 out of 4 stars
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After The Goodnights Are Said by Shawn Hudson is a short children’s picture book. The book depicts a group of cute monsters and the mischief they get up to at night, after children go to bed. The book is full of various illustrations of the monsters doing all sorts of silly things, like texting on a cell phone and reading a book. At about sixteen pages long and with few words per page, this book is short enough to be read to young children all in one sitting.
The language used in the book is simplistic and typical of a children’s picture book geared towards a younger age range. The author utilizes rhymes throughout the short narrative, and most rhymes are successful and easy to comprehend, like when ‘told’ is rhymed with ‘hold.’ However, as the story progresses, the rhymes become a bit more forced, like when ‘phone’ is rhymed with ‘warzone.’ Generally speaking, the simplistic language used in the story is successful and will make this a book children can begin to read on their own.
This book contains a cute, sometimes funny story that can be enjoyed by young children as well as parents. Throughout the narrative, we see all kinds of strange-yet-sweet monsters doing silly things throughout the night. Although the hand-drawn illustrations are cute and appealing to the eye, some of the illustrations lack bright colors, making them less appealing. Additionally, sometimes the background is all black, drawn in what appears to be pen strokes. This created a lack of contrast with the monsters, causing the creatures to get lost within the dark background, and ultimately making them difficult to see.
The manner in which the text is placed on the pages happened to be the biggest detractor for this children’s book. The text is randomly inserted in a white box on the page; however, the pictures are full color, including the background. So the stark contrast of the white box containing the text seems unprofessional and poorly placed. The text would have appeared more integrated with the illustrations if a contrasting color was used for the font and the words were placed directly on top of the illustrations.
After The Goodnights Are Said is a short, simple children’s book that would be most appropriate for parents to read to young children aged approximately three to seven. There are some funny parts of the story that will be enjoyed by both children and their parents. However, the unprofessional looking text boxes, sometimes distracting artwork, and forced rhyming lead me to rate this children’s book 2 out of 4 stars. If the illustrations all had better contrast, and if the text was placed seamlessly within the illustrations, I would have considered a higher rating.
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After The Goodnights Are Said
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