Note to Readers
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Luke and His Amazing Space Bed (Picture Book)
Released October 2009
www.camhousepress.com
Reviewed by Tracy Farnsworth
It's always hard to critique a child's book, especially one written by a child. In this case, I read LUKE AND HIS AMAZING SPACE BED and then read the back cover blurb. It was in reading the synopsis on the back that I finally said, "Oh, that's what the book was about." Not a good sign by any means.
Thinking maybe I just "missed" the point, I then handed the book to both of my children. They again said they didn't get it. I had them then read the blurb and they had the same reaction as me. In a nut shell, the blurb on the back cover retells the entire story but without having to decipher the clues.
As a note, I did received an advanced reader's copy, so any grammatical errors may be corrected before it goes to print. In addition, the back cover information may well change.
For instance, the boys in the story, Luke and Arnold head into space on Luke's rocket bed and travel to the "furthest" (though that should be farthest for proper grammar: farthest for distance, furthest for ideas or metaphors) planet from the sun. My kids did know the farthest planet from the sun, I wasn't quite as quick to pick up on it. Either way, they did say their schools don't teach the planets until 5th grade and by that point, they'd be too old for this book anyway. Some schools, such as the author's, may teach them earlier.
The heart of the story involves whether Pluto is a moon or a planet. Again, this is something my kids said wasn't taught until middle school. With that, I handed the book to one of the neighborhood children, she's eight, to read. She really didn't get the storyline at all, mainly because she hasn't learned her planets yet. I told her a bit about the planets and the debate over Pluto and she reread the book with a little more understanding this time and said it was better, but still not a book she'd keep.
With that, I have a hard time deciding which age group should read this book. It's geared towards the younger crowd, but unless parents spend time teaching about the planets in advance, children might feel lost with the topic at hand. I think parents are best off showing a couple pages to their child before deciding to purchase.
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I can't emagine anyone not getting the point of this book. I thought it was very well written and brilliantly illustrated. I hope this author will write more book like this. I know now what I will be getting all my young readers this Christmas.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is welcome to their opinion. In this case, I've had a 15 year old, 12 year old and two 8 year olds read the book. None of them truly enjoyed the book. The 8 year olds said they were confused, however in our school district planets are not taught until middle school, so that might be part of the problem.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, I stand by my quote that it would be best to show some pages to your children before paying $12. In this economy, particularly in my area, $12 can be a lot of money to families whose parent or parents are still looking for jobs and where winter is fast approaching and heating bills are going to be hitting mailboxes soon.
What's the point to Where the Wild Things Are? Or goodnight moon?
ReplyDeleteWhat's the point to ANY children's book?
Where the Wild Things Are - Max is sent to bed without supper for misbehaving. He enters the land of the wild where he gets to do whatever he wants but soon learns he misses mom and that maybe life at home wasn't so bad. Pretty strong message there.
ReplyDeleteGoodnight Moon - first this one is geared for toddlers, so not on the same level as books like Luke that are for four to eight year olds who have some comprehension of plots within a book. Even then, it teaches that everything must rest. What it does focus on is poetry and repetitive text to help a child learn to read.
Wow! What a great book. I just purchased 4 copies of this great book and can't wait to share with my friends children. This author is right on target with the young minds.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to clear up a few things about the two glowing reviews you've left.
First off, as indicated by the blatant grammatical issues, it seems that the two preceding comments (e.g. not using an apostrophe on the word friends, misspelling "imagine") are authored the same person.
Now, onto my own review. (I am the aforementioned 15-year-old son of the reviewer) The book was admittedly hard for me to follow, and I'm now fairly well-versed in college-level literature. I ask: Who honestly expects a kid, of three to even ten years of age, to comprehend this?
That being said, the illustrations are halfway decent. Unfortunately, they simply aren't good enough to redeem the otherwise poorly-written nature of this book.
I understand that a child wrote this book. Here's the thing: IT'S BEEN DONE BEFORE! You can't expect to make $12 on a book simply because a child wrote it. It's disheartening that the author wasn't willing to assist his child in constructing a solid piece of literature.
And now onto the grammatical issues. It is in my understanding that this is a book for children. Is the author attempting to prove that misspelling words is okay in modern language? If anything, kids need to learn, at an early age, that spelling is just as influential to the overall impact of a writing piece as the story itself. Showing children a book like this is just going to confuse them. If a published book can get away with improper use of diction and syntax, who's to say a child can't?
And most of all, it disappoints me that the someone feels the need to defend this work anonymously. Anonymous, if you are indeed a close friend of the author as it appears, why not admit it? It's not like we can't tell.
Before adding my opinion of the book, I would just like to respond to the comments about the grammatical errors in the copy you read. As the original reviewer stated, she received an advanced copy of the book. When publishers want to build publicity for their books, they send out draft copies called "Galley Books," just to give reviewers and media outlets an idea of what they are working on. It is standard knowledge for any professional reviewer to overlook spelling and grammar errors in a Galley, as the book will probably undergo more than one more edit before hitting shelves.
ReplyDeleteIn response to all the confusion over the storyline behind the book... I went to grade school in Florida, which has one of the worse education systems in the country, and I definitely learned the planets in grade school. When parents read to their children, it is not just to entertain them. When you read to your child, you SHOULD discuss the subject matter with them before hand and ask them questions after you read the book. It is an opportunity for you to inspire intellectual conversations with your children, which is exactly what a book should do.
I thought the book was very cute, and while I did read the back cover first, I don't understand why that's bad. You are supposed to read the back cover of a book first. I read the book to my cousin and he loved it and the excitement I put into reading it. He is only 2 years old, and more than anything is just exposed him to the idea of outer space as an actual place, and introduced him to planets and moons and stars. I pointed to objects in the pictures and had him tell me what they were, and he loved it.