Children’s book reviews for the holidays

Reviews: Lauren O’Connor-May

Lea Goes to School

Zuléka Smit

Luca

In this follow-up to Ben Goes to School, Lea, Ben’s little sister, faces similar challenges as her brother did during his first week of school. With the help of her mom, Lea overcomes these challenges through prayer.

This book is the third in a series by teacher and motivational speaker Zuleka Smit which is aimed at teaching children Christian-based life-skills.

The books are published under the newest Lapa subsidiary, Luca, which prints Christian content, mostly in Afrikaans.

Marvin Wanted More

Joseph Theobald

Bloomsbury

This humorous story about greed and self-love tells the quirky adventures of Marvin the sheep.

Marvin is unhappy that he is smaller than the other sheep even though his good friend Molly reassures him that she likes him just as he is.

Marvin, however, is not satisfied. His dissatisfaction grows with his appetite and only ends when the fantastically over-large sheep swallows the whole world.

This book became a quick favourite at home. My littlest daughters couldn’t get enough of this book, ironically.

Hippobottomus

Didier Lévy

Thames and Hudson

This book was remarkably strange and I suspect the author decided to capitalise on children’s fascination with butt-related puns but didn’t quite know where to go with the story.

The result is a disjointed story that left my children confused.

Thankfully nobody asked for rereads of this book.

The Little Prince Pop Up Book

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Farshore

My children love The Little Prince, so much so that when this board book pop-up version arrived, my eldest daughter, who is 19, allowed her younger sisters one read before she promptly claimed the book and hid it away, declaring them not responsible enough to not break the book.

Indeed, pop-up and flap books, fun as they are, have a short shelf life since the moving parts break so easily.

The art in this book is very beautiful and reminiscent of the movie version. The shortened story and art did a good job of capturing the magical ethereal essence of the original story and for the short time my other children were allowed to read the book, everyone enjoyed it.

Van Gogh’s Dog

Georgia Larson and Grace Helmer

Buster Books

This is another book where the art is as big a part of the story as the text.

In the story Vincent van Gogh is searching for inspiration when a stray dog appears and steals his paintbrush. He chases the dog through a field of sunflowers, the town and finally into the river and along the way he sees many beautiful and inspirational sights.

The story ends with Vincent adopting the dog and painting everything he had seen during his chase. The last pages feature miniatures of the Van Gogh’s paintings that are part of the story.

My children and I really enjoyed this unique and beautiful book.