Showing posts with label Sébastien Pelon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sébastien Pelon. Show all posts

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Hope by Corrinne Averiss, Sébastien Pelon


Rating: WORTHY!

This is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

Hope is a gently-written (by Averiss) and beautifully, artfully illustrated (by Pelon) set out in about 20 double-page spreads depicting a young boy named Finn, and his large and very hairy dog named Comet. The two are very close and do everything together, so when the dog gets sick, Finn worries understandably, yet so much that it consumes him. His dad - almost as hairy as the dog(!) - comes into Finn's room one night with a torch (flashlight) and some advice, it resonates with Finn and turns his perspective around a little bit, so he learns to hope for the best and hang in there.

I really liked this story; it had a steady pace and an easy meter, and I loved the artwork which was exquisitely rendered. I commend it for any young reader, especially ones who might find themselves in Finn's position vis-à-vis a dog or any pet. I recently went through the loss of two pets - and these were not dogs but rats. I never thought I'd ever get attached to a pet rat, but these two were the inspiration for a series of children's books I started writing, and I bonded with them far too deeply, which left me devastated when they died, one of them last December right before Christmas, and the other five months later.

This book has a much happier ending than that, but I can also still recall how I felt when the first family dog we had when I was a child grew old and into a condition where she had to be put down, and it devastated me too. I've never forgotten how much that affected me back then, and if a book like this helps young children cope with such feelings, no matter whether the outcome is good, as it is here, or the worst, then it's well-worth investing in. I commend this as a worthy read for the message it carries and for the art is displays.


Sunday, July 1, 2018

Ready to Ride by Sébastien Pelon


Rating: WARTY!

This is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

This is a young children's book which seems to convey the message that it's just fine for a young kid to go out by himself, meet a stranger, wander off with the stranger without saying a word to mommy, spend hours gone, and then come back and offer no explanation. I felt it was entirely inappropriate and the wrong message to send to kids.

The child in question wants to go out and play on his bike, and the poster parent for bad parenting, who is the kid's mom, lets him out on the street with no supervision and no safety gear such as a helmet or elbow/knee pads. He sees some weird giant creature which is riding a bike and so he follows this creature, which then teaches the kid to ride without his safety wheels.

He does give the kid a helmet, but this is an afterthought and indicates that it's okay to accept gifts from complete strangers. I'm sorry but there are far better ways of achieving the end here than teaching a kid that it's fine to do the things depicted here with someone you don't know and to wander off with a stranger without a word to mom or dad. There are far better ways to have written this, and I cannot approve of this book at all.