2 out of 4 stars
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Every moment, of every day, there is a lesson to be learned. If you jump on your bed, you can hurt your head and a doctor will need to be called. If you run around the house, you can break something. If you break into a home made from sweets and start eating it, a witch will try to eat you. There is a lesson to be learned in every situation. In Chrissy Wragg’s Flynn Frog Learns a Lesson, Flynn must learn his lesson the hard way. When he and a friend terrorizes Willow Dale Lake, Flynn is the one who must face the consequences of their actions. This might turn into a lesson he’ll never forget!
When reading children’s books, I always pay close attention to the book cover so I can form an opinion on the illustrations. On the front cover, I was impressed with the imagery. It was bright, colorful and very suitable for young children. When I turned the page to the story, I didn’t know who the book was suitable for anymore.
The first thing I noticed about the format of the book was that it was written like a short chapter book. Every two pages had a tiny illustration at the top and most of the page was consumed with words. I took note that it couldn’t be a chapter book because there were no chapters. I knew this wasn’t a picture book for young children because there were far too many words and so little images. So, I couldn’t figure out what age group this book would be appropriate for. Also, there were a few grammatical errors that consisted of random bolded words and run on sentences. The book wasn’t properly structured, as every time a new character spoke, it wasn’t written on a separate line but bunched in with the lines of the previous speaker.
As for the character, Flynn wasn’t a bad character. He had some positive character development that I think parents can appreciate. The problem is, after reading the story, I feel the plot fails to rely the message it wants to tell. The point of the story should have been that there are consequences for your actions. Did Flynn really learn his lesson about misbehaving? Did his friend, Frankie, learn anything…at all? I’ll leave that for the readers to decide.
I was impressed by the cover art and even though the plot fails, I can see the message that they author was trying to give with the story. For those two positives, I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. The real problem with the story is that, the way it is written and formatted, doesn’t make it a good fit for younger or even older children. I can’t even recommend this book because I don’t know who I can recommend it too. If the story is lengthened and had chapters added to it, I can say it is for ages 7-11. If it is shortened and has more illustrations, I can say it is for ages 4-6. Until then, my answer is, none of the above.
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Flynn Frog Learns a Lesson
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