Author: Scott Gordon
Publisher: Scott Gordon
Rating: WORTHY!
Today happens to be Scott Gordon day on my blog. I've favorably reviewed this author's children's books before. Apart from misdientifying a whale as a fish, and some issues of repetition, I liked the previous set of four, which was all about animals. I liked this one, too.
It's another four-pack, but these stories are a little bit more fantastical - well three of them are, anyway. The fourth one is about heart health, which I found commendable.
Two are about dinosaurs and were very well done (and accurate as far as my amateur eye could tell). Of course, we don't really know what color dinos were (with very few exceptions) and in a children's book it doesn't matter, so there were no issues there.
The pictures are excellent and very well drawn; they're very colorful and designed to be especially attractive to the target audience of children ages three to six.
The heart health is full of fact and advice about eating the right kind of diet to help your heart help you. I'm not sure how much of an impression that would make on a three-year old, but you know it's really never too early to start on a good diet. That doesn't mean zero treats and junk food: psychological health is just as important as physical, so we don't want to turn our kids into misfits and pariahs, but keeping an eye on what they eat works wonders as they mature. If your kids go off to college and ruin eighteen previous years of healthy eating, at least the foundation is solidly in place - that's all a parent can do!
What particularly amused me was the ninja robots. I was saddened that it was ninja robot repair men, rather than "ninja repair robots" (or something). It's entirely wrong to suggest that only men can repair things (or that robots have gender!). Men have been in charge of the world - more or less - for centuries and look at what they've done! There's no guarantee that women would have done any better, but if we never give them a chance, how will we ever know?
If it's never too early to start on good diet advice for children, then it's equally never too early to start on erasing gender barriers! Tell your kids that these are really repair women, but because they're ninjas they're disguised, of course! Or point out that they are men, but look at the trouble they cause!
That aside I'm willing to rate this (or more accurately these four) a worthy read.
