Sonia Sander

Puffer loves to tell tall tales. He has even been known to cry "shark" to get himself out of a bind. But what happens when there really is a shark lurking near the coral reef? Will Puffer's friends believe him or will his tall tales put them all in danger? ...a good, gentle story about lying and telling the truth.

A self-help book to aid young ones in keeping to goals or New Year's resolutions has some basic and generic advice about health, diet, exercise, time management, and tidiness. Plenty of cute dog pictures are added as the sugar to help this medicine go down.

When a winter storm keeps the Care Bears from having their usual decorations and festivities, Cheer Bear gathers the bears to cheer them up with memories and the power of friendship.

Ugh.

Even my Care Bear loving daughter found little to like in this schmaltzy pap when she was six.

FOR REFERENCE:

Rated “Indifferent" in our old book database by Rod and Adelia.

The book begins with the fish playing tag and Puffer is being chased by the other fish. As he was about to be tagged, a dark shadow appeared and was coming at them. Puffer cries out shark and the other fish hide behind corals and shrubs, thinking that it really was shark. Then it turns out the shadows were not sharks and Puffer thinks it was funny. He does this twice but towards the end of the book, a real shark shows up and no one believes him. Luckily a blue whale saves them and Puffer show more promises never to tell a lie again.

I enjoyed this book for it's a good version of the boy who cried wolf. The pictures kept me interested throughout the book and it has good sense of suspense as the shadow comes closer which I enjoyed.

This book is good to read to children when a child has been telling lies to other children. It's also a good book for learning about the ocean and different kinds of fish mentioned in the story. show less