Bill Scollon

Dusty Crophopper lives in a world of sentient mechanical objects. His ambition is to be a world racer. There's a good message about living one's dreams, working hard, and being kind. But the characterisation is poor, the conversations are stilted, often filled with technical jargon, and much of the storyline often ridiculous (even granting the premise of a world without people or animals).

To be fair it's intended for young children who like the Pixar-style film 'Planes' (which I have never show more seen, and have no wish to see) and my four-year-old grandson likes this book, which is why I read it to him. But I was unimpressed with the name-calling, some extreme nastiness, and even a few innuendoes which went over his head, but which seemed totally inappropriate for a book of this kind.

Really not recommended! show less

Possibly the worst children's book I have ever been coerced to read. Dinosaurs farming? No, no, no! I mean, I know that anthropomorphizing animals is very much the done thing in children's books, but this one just went too far. The story was also very disjointed.

Almost all people now-a-days can answer yes to this question: “Have you seen the movie Frozen?” In my opinion, Frozen is the 21st century Cinderella. This movie franchise has not only made money off of Frozen toys, but Frozen books as well. If a child has an interest in a certain movie, they will be more susceptible to read a book about that same topic. This book summarizes the movie and incorporates key parts of the movie that are crucial to the story. The moral of this story is that show more “an act of true love can thaw a frozen hear!”. Disney has a done a fantastic job at changing the classic fairytale story where the prince saves the day, to the princess saves either herself or someone else. This story basically follows the lives of two sisters who have lost their parents and only have each other left. It incorporates humor, adventure, romance, and friendship. In the end of this particular story, Anna saves her sister Elsa by throwing herself in front of a sword that was going to kill Elsa. This is the more advanced of the two Frozen versions of the Golden Books series. It has bigger words and more words on each page meant for a more moderate pace reader. The illustrations are incredibly vivid and similar to the movie itself. The LEA lesson of this story is that sibling bonds and friendships can be strong than anything so long as you continue to love one another. show less

Disney’s Doc McStuffins: Brave Dragon

Easy Reader

Ages: Pre-K to K

Genre: Playground Safety, Disney

Find this book at your local library

Stuffy the Dragon gets hurts on the playground playing with friends and is afraid to play, for fear of getting hurt again. Will be overcome his worries?

I’ve never actually seen the Disney Doc McStuffins show on Disney, but based on the book, it seems like a cute little cartoon for kids. I like that Doc McStuffins isn’t your typical blue-eyed, blond-haired show more little girl. Doc and her animal friends are playing with all sorts of toys and playground equipment when Stuffy the Dragon gets hurt and doesn’t want to play. The only thing that bothered me was the short of refrain of “be a brave dragon.” As a book for pre-K readers, the text is very short. 1 to 3 word sentences on each page. The illustrations are very colorful and animated, and do a great job of carrying the story. I like the list of playground safety rules on the last page.

Read more at: https://librarycrossing.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/doc-mcstuffins-brave-dragon/ show less