4 out of 4 stars
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Toni is a regular kids who likes to do what regular kids do, but he is also a superhero! What makes Toni a superhero? He wears a cape and a mask, and he has a giant T on his superhero costume. He also helps his mother with chores and rescues animals. Toni is terrific!
Toni the Superhero is a children’s book written by R.D. Boss and illustrated by Debbie Hefke. This book is beautifully illustrated with vibrant colors that will be appealing for young children and draw their attention. The pictures showcase Toni in action as he does things like play with friends, draw, and swim. The images are perfect for parents to ask their children about colors and counting items.
This is a short book with only thirty pages and writing on about half of those. The sentences are short and intended for children in the early stages of learning to read. Children will be introduced to the sight word “to” and will be exposed to “Toni” and “likes” in most sentences. This would be a good opportunity for children to learn or practices consonant sounds and long vowel sounds.
The greatest strength of this illustrated children’s book is the fun pictures; this will be the first thing that captures the attention of readers. Another great feature is the short sentences that will be easy for young readers to work through. The author seems to understand that brevity is necessary for the targeted age group. A small issue in this story, however, is that many young readers will not be able to sound out some of these words phonetically, nor does it feature a great deal of sight words that children between the ages of four to six would generally have learned. Children may not yet know or be able to sound out words like “rescue,” “draw,” or “dance” as silent letters, long vowel sounds and soft consonant sounds are usually learned a little bit later. The author may want to consider using words that are more simple for children to sound out or sight words that they may learn in kindergarten. With that be said, the aforementioned negatives in no way do not detract from the story, nor to they take away from the illustrations. Children who do not yet know these words will still enjoy looking at the book or having it read to them. There are no issues with spelling, punctuation, or capitalization. This book receives 4 out of 4 stars.
R.D. Boss and Debbie Hefke did a beautiful job with this book. Children between the ages of three and six would either be able to sit through this story or read in on their own without their attention faltering. They would also be captivated by the stunning illustrations. This book is not challenging enough for children from ages seven on up, and it would probably not have enough depth in the plot for them to feel satisfied with it as a story. This would be a great learning tool for parents teaching counting, colors, and beginning reading.
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Toni the Superhero
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