Review by Browlyns -- The Blue Sea Monster

[Browlyns]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Blue Sea Monster" by Norma Fleagane, James Fleagane, Blake James Ward.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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The Blue Sea Monster is part of ‘The Sneaky the Hairy Mountain Monster series’ by Norma Fleagane. It is a fictitious story about an ugly big blue monster that comes out of the ocean in the coast of Florida; the monster is partly covered in scales and comes out early in the morning before dawn or late in the evening when it is dark. It would kidnap children and take them to a deserted island in the Bahamas, that was until Blake and his grandfather decided to take action against the monster and save the children. What action and technique did they use to scare away the monster? Did they succeed? And did they manage to save the kidnapped children?

The author Norma Fleagane is someone who really understands the psychology of children; as is evident in this book. She manages to tap into the emotions and senses of the children ranging from physical to psychological and even actions like shouting, marching or dancing. If this book is handled by a good story reader all this will be accomplished as the reader or narrator would take the children through this actions to the full enjoyment and comprehension of the book.

What I liked best about this book is its mentioning of real places that exist in this world, for example, Florida and Bahamas. This appeals more to the adventurousness of the children about these places; it also improves their world map understanding, compass direction and physical features. The book as mentioned earlier has been written in such a way that it can be read by children or narrated and still be enjoyable. The dialogues in it are constructed in such a way that they can make a group of children participate by yelling words like “we are soldiers” together, this improves concentration and understanding of the book. In the book the author mentions other children’s books like ‘Pirates of The Caribbean’ and places like the Disney World, this appeals to the interest of the child to read more books and make note of places they would like to visit.

What I liked least about this book is the breaking of the story line. At one time the characters are scaring away the monsters, the next minute the monsters are on the plane heading for a convention. I believe children would want to know what happened to the monster and since this is a children book, the villain has to be punished for it to convey a moral lesson.

The language use is very simple with light vocabularies suitable for children, short and simple sentences are also used for easier reading and understanding by the children. To ensure maximum understanding the author uses pictorials to strengthen the story and imagination of a child, for this reason, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars and no less. I did not give it a 3 because the main character and hero of this book is a child, this would teach kids to be courageous and role models.

Like every children’s book, this has a happy ending. It would appeal more to children of the age of 6 years and below due to its content. It is not suitable for children who are scared of monsters or other scary beings wanting to do harm to children.

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The Blue Sea Monster
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[M Zee]

How's the art in this one? I feel like a lot of monster-themed picture books are really make/break by the art selections!