For Book Reviews: Edition 11, I am reviewing: Mora’s Compelling Adventures, Scoochie & Skiddles: Scoochie’s Adoption Story, and Angus, A Guitar Hero with a Bright Soul.
Mora’s Compelling Adventures
Mora’s Compelling Adventures was written and illustrated by Ernie J.M. Page. The story focuses on Mora, a critically endangered orangutan. Although I agree with and like the overall message, I had several issues with the story.
First, there were the grammatical errors. To be fair, there were only a few of them, and the story was still readable. But, the errors were basic enough that it was clear the story either hadn’t been edited or was written by an amateur writer who has yet to learn proper mechanics in writing.
Then there was the story itself. I felt like I was reading a retelling of an actually event that the writer attempted to turn into a children’s story. Don’t get me wrong, the beginning of it was decently done. My issue was with the ending, the fire, and the illegal loggers.
This was meant to be the conflict of the story, but it fell short. In the end, the author summarizes the damage that was done. My guess is that this is because they wanted to shield children from what had actually happened, but the result is a bland summation of the event rather than any sort of a true climax.
The section needed more development, and it needed to affect Mora personally to create the impact the author was attempting. Instead of vaguely saying that some of the orangutans died, I would have let Mora and the reader see one of the orangutans die and up the anty for her own survival instead of glossing over it.
This book gets 2/5 stars from me.
Scoochie & Skiddles: Scoochie’s Adoption Story
Scoochie & Skiddles: Scoochie’s Adoption Story was written by Tom Tracy and illustrated by Dustin James.
To be honest, I didn’t expect this story to be anything special. I expected a typical adoption story–nice and good for understanding what being adopted is like, but again, nothing special. Clearly, I didn’t read the description.
The story was about Scoochie’s story of being adopted by her two dads, something I feel is sorely needed in today’s society.
Right now we have conservatives screaming about inappropriate sexual content and saying that children should not be exposed to the word ‘gay’ (Don’t Say Gay Bill in Florida). However, this book is what liberals are fighting to allow. There is no sexual content, and it is not inappropriate for children. It is educational.
Although I found one grammatical error (I think it might have been a typo), the story was otherwise well written. This book gets 4/5 stars from me.
Angus, a guitar hero with a bright soul
Angus, a guitar hero with a bright soul was written by Mariano Ponzano. On first observation, the story was hard to read because the font blended into the images on the pages.
At first, no one liked Angus’s music, and then the city was attacked by a bat that hypnotized the townspeople. Angus then engaged in a music battle with the bat.
Here’s my issue with it–first, the attack came out of nowhere. There was no build up, no observation of the darkness. It felt like one huge summary.
Second, while I liked the music battle, the theme of the story was set up by the title and intro as Angus’s bright soul. However, the author never went back to this. There needed to be some line drawn between the music battle and Angus’s light.
While I can see where the author was attempting to go with this story, it was not clearly depicted in the text. It has a lot of potential that it just doesn’t live up to. This book gets 2/5 stars from me.
Conclusion & Recommendation
Based on my reviews, I recommend Scoochie & Skiddles: Scoochie’s Adoption Story. If you’re interested in having me review your book, please email me at andiecampbell@andiecampbellblog.com.
This concludes Book Reviews: Edition 11. If there’s a particular book you would like me to review, comment below.
AprilCoxTravel & Freelance 