Review of Alpaca In The Backa’ My Car

[Kaitlyn Canedy]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Alpaca In The Backa’ My Car" by Ben Farber.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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Have you seen an alpaca before? If you have, then you know that they tend to stick together. This scenario is what happens in Alpaca in the Backa’ my Car!. The unnamed protagonist was driving his car when an alpaca asked for a ride. The driver agreed but didn’t know that he would be picking up other alpacas along the way. They wanted him to go to a dress shop, hilltop, and then a burning building. How can all these alpacas fit in this little car? What does the driver think about all of this? I thought that I would have received answers to these questions; sadly, I did not.

I want to start by saying what I liked about the book. The title of the book is cute and original, which is why I wanted to read it. I found myself repeating the title consistently after reading it for the first time. I also enjoyed the illustrations provided because they reminded me of a modernized comic strip. The driver's emotions are clear, making it easy for young readers to feel the same way he does.

However, as the story progresses, I noticed that the storyline stopped making sense. As mentioned before, the alpacas and the driver visited three different places. When I got to the ending, I was left more confused about how it connected with the events throughout the story. Because of spoilers, I cannot give specific details. It is hard to determine if readers will understand the connection between the ending and the whole book as the events within the story do not fit together well.

There was one scene in the book in which the alpacas steal an item. While I believe this was for comical reasons, the reaction of the driver seemed inappropriate. How can a person put their trust and hang out with anyone who steals from others? Even though it is unintentional, this message gives the wrong impression to children and indirectly encourages poor choices.

Four grammatical errors were in the book, but I do think it was professionally edited. As much as I liked the title and illustrations, I did not enjoy the story itself because it was confusing, gave a wrong message, and had an inconclusive ending. I also cannot recommend it to any audience in its current state. Because of this, I can only award this book 1 out of 4 stars. Even still, I believe that Ben Farber is a talented and humorous author. This book just needs assistance from an editor to give it the attention it needs.

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Alpaca In The Backa’ My Car
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[Katie Blackmore]

Aw that is so disappointing to hear! I love the title too, it really made me giggle. It sounds like the book has a lot of potential and just needs some work done on it to get it to the level it could be. Thank you for your honest and well-written review.

[Theana De lima Araujo]

I saw the one star rating and I had to see why. I get it, it's a children's book which doesn't seem to make much sense or explain itself by saying, for example, the alpacas are magical...perhaps it is a missed opportunity for the author to speak about friendship or maybe they did and it wasn't in the review. Thank you for the review it was great to read.

[Kaitlyn Canedy]

Aw that is so disappointing to hear! I love the title too, it really made me giggle. It sounds like the book has a lot of potential and just needs some work done on it to get it to the level it could be. Thank you for your honest and well-written review.

Thank you for your comment! I enjoyed the concept in the book, but the story itself was so hard to follow after reading for some time. I really hope that the author takes my advice and edits this book so it can be enjoyed by children.

[Kaitlyn Canedy]

I saw the one star rating and I had to see why. I get it, it's a children's book which doesn't seem to make much sense or explain itself by saying, for example, the alpacas are magical...perhaps it is a missed opportunity for the author to speak about friendship or maybe they did and it wasn't in the review. Thank you for the review it was great to read.

There are some concepts that I left out due to spoilers, but I will say that the missed opportunity you mentioned is not far off base. The only issue I had was the execution. The rest of the story did not make sense with this idea, which is one of the reasons why I rated this book so low. Thanks for the comment!

[Medhansh Bhardwaj]

A children's book doesn't have to make much sense, but if it is teaching inappropriate values to them, it is straight down the rating chart.

[Gabriella Smith]

That's disappointing, hopefully, the plot will be workshopped. Thank you for your honest review.

[Paluk Pathania]

I was initially perplexed as to why you gave this book such a low rating. However, when I read the review, I understood your reasons, and I believe that if I had been in your place, I would have given it the same rating. Thanks for the honest review! Really appreciate that.

[Ruthhagar Tsikata]

Honestly the book does make much sense from the beginning but it's a child book and most don't make sense nevertheless most kids are really curious about what they read and see and need an explanation for everything . I was really wondering what the wedding was about only to see a team of rescuers. I was wondering how thee alpaca got to the top of the building and in trouble and how will that be explained to a kid. I like the fact that it ended with a very good lesson which still didn't add up to the whole story though. Your rating is logical