Mini Reviews [12]

Watermelon Madness by Taghreed Najjar,

Maya Fidawi (Illustrator), Michelle Hartman &

 Tameem Hartman (Translators) 

Synopsis (via Goodreads): Noura only wants to eat watermelon, until the night she sneaks a watermelon into her room and dreams of having all the watermelon she could ever want. 

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I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.

I thought this book had a very James and the Giant Peach vibe, but that feeling didn't last very long. Noura was rude and extremely ill-tempered. She yelled at her mother with no consequence, and I thought her behavior should have at least been addressed.

At the end the mother tells her daughter that they will discuss the "magical watermelon" the next day, but then the story ends. Why tell the readers your going to talk about Noura's dream, if you're not going to?

The story was an okay read for me, and my son enjoyed it because of the watermelon theme (he's obsessed with them). I just feel like the story could have been more that what it was (a few more explanations, Noura being told that her behavior was unkind, etc.).

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Fish-Boy by Vanita Oelschlager, 

Mike Blanc (Illustrator)

Synopsis (via Goodreads): The Arctic region of North America is a land of long days, icy cold, hardy people and peculiar creatures. The Inuit people there have made traditional use of remarkable folk tales to find truth and explain the mysteries of an astonishing world.

In Fish-Boy, An Inuit Folk Tale, Vanita Oelschlager retells a tale passed down by a wise old Inuit. It's an origin story involving a little magic and a very odd boy with a large heart for friendship. On a journey with his new father, he must confront misfortune and the malice of cold hearted villagers. But he has a way.. and a lesson for all in the virtues of kindness and hospitality.

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I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product.

I really enjoyed this one! It was a little more in-depth than some of the others we've been reading, but my son didn't mind. I had to explain a few things that went over his head (like why this boy wanted a stranger to be his father), and he was happy to go along with it. 

The illustrations were beautiful and the story was fascinating. Fish-Boy is a story within a story, and I liked how they used an elaborate tale to explain why so many birds flocked to an island. They turned a simple question into a life lesson.