I Will Love You Forever (REVIEW)

 

I Will Love You Forever 

Author: Tatsuya Miyanishi
Category: Illustrated Children's Book

Suitable for: All Ages, ideal for ages 5-7

My Rating: 2.5 Stars

Format Read for Review: ARC from the author/publisher in return for my honest review.

Pages: 40

Description: A Maiasaura (herbivore) finds an egg in the forest one day. She keeps it safe with an egg of her own until both eggs hatch. When the mystery egg hatches she discovers it is a baby Tyrannosaurus (carnivore). She raises the Tyrannosaurus with her own baby even though he is her natural predator. As the Tyrannosaurus grows he discovers what he truly is and after meeting his biological father in the woods he disappears with him and never comes back.

In Short: Overall I thought this book was too dark to be enjoyable for children. Although it tries to have positive messages of unconditional love and loving others even when they aren't like you, it in the process isolates adopted children. The adopted dinosaur struggled with his identity, was regularly drawn with tears in his eyes, and eventually runs away from the family that raised him and loved him.

Pros: The start of this story was cute and had potential, but I hated how it turned out. Maybe the other books of this series have more uplifting themes. I would suggest, if you are interested in this series, or your child just loves dinosaurs to check out the other books of the series first. I had never heard of the Maiasaura before so I learned something new. I really loved the Maiasaura characters and wish they could have gotten a happier ending.

           

Cons: The art and story are a bit dark and melancholy in my opinion for small children. For me this story is too sad and I think the ending could be confusing for the age group. I didn't feel that there was any sort of resolution by the end or that any valuable lessons were learned. I don't think adopted children should read this book because it could make them feel like they don't belong. Even though the mother Maiasaura raised the baby tyrannosaur with love and said all the right things he left her without any warning. It is a very heartbreaking ending that leaves a lot of questions unanswered and is not comforting.

Parent's Guide: This book contains some cartoon violence and sad themes that may be hurtful to adopted children. 

Lily Lemon Blossom (Children's Book REVIEW) Welcome to Lily's Room

Lily Lemon Blossom

Welcome to Lily's Room

Author: Barbara Miller

Illustrated by: Inga Shalvashvili
Category: Children's Book (Illustrated)

Suitable for: All ages

My Rating: 2.5 Stars

Format Read for Review: Kindle

Pages: 32

Description: In this book Lily shows you her room and all her toys and how she plays with them, having tea parties with all her dolls. Each page has a rhyme that goes along with the image and if you tap on the text (Kindle version) it zooms in for you.   

In Short: The art is really colorful and beautiful but I think the audience for this book is limited. Maybe some little girls who like dolls would be able to relate and be entertained by this book.

Pros: The art is really beautiful and brightly colored. It is a lovely watercolor style that should appeal to kids. The zoom in on text feature for the Kindle version is a nice touch. It's currently free on Amazon for the Kindle edition.

Cons: This book doesn't seem to have much purpose. There is no story or moral or humor. It's all very shallow and materialistic, about the toys in a little girl's room. It doesn't seem like it would serve much of an entertainment purpose either for most kids. 

Fallen by Lauren Kate (REVIEW)

Fallen

Author: Lauren Kate

Category: YA Supernatural Romance (Angels)

Suitable for: teens+

My Rating: 2.5 Stars

Format Read for Review:  Kindle

Pages: 466

Description: A mysterious and confusing book about a teenage girl with a troubled past who is sent to a boarding school. There she is drawn to a boy who tries to avoid her and chased by another boy she has no interest in. All the while strange shadows stalk her and she fears for her sanity.

In Short: This book is incredibly drawn out and purposefully and annoyingly mysterious. The book ends without answering all of your and the main character’s questions because ‘it’s just too much information and too little time to explain.’ The entire bulk of the book is about a teen girl with a crush (which is very boring to read about). If you liked Twilight you might like this book, it is similar in many aspects. However I thought Twilight was better.

Pros: This book could have a good story if it was just a little more fleshed out and way less drug out. I imagine if more of this book series had been condensed into one book it would have been a lot more fun to read.

Cons: The most interesting aspect of this book (the parts about fallen angels) is mostly ignored and not at all exploited to its fullest potential. I was very irritated when I reached the end of the book and was left with more questions than answers. I still don’t get what was going on but I don’t care enough to read the rest of the series to find out more. There were some scenes that were just downright annoying and stupid. I really didn't get what the conflict was about, it seemed really pointless. The angels are very unlikable. There are definitely better YA Angel books out there like the Guardians series by Lola StVil.  

The Voyage by Ivana Vianno (REVIEW)

The Voyage

Author:  Ivana Vianno

Category:  Sci Fi (Science Fiction - Aliens) (short)

Suitable for:  Adults

My Rating: 2

Pages: 102

Description:  This is a short story about a man who is abducted by aliens and travels around with them. He experiences communication problems and experiences their way of living.

In Short:  A man is abducted by aliens and has new, strange and sometimes funny alien experiences.

Pros: It was kind of funny.

Cons: There was no plot. It was pretty stupid and had a lousy ending. The main character was unlikable and hard to understand.  The author failed to explain why things happened the way they did and went the way they did, so it left the reader confused and with a lot of questions.

Fortunately, I got the kindle edition of this book while it was free on Amazon.