Official Review: Apples Holes Ants And Bees But NO Blankie

[bluegreenmarina]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Apples Holes Ants And Bees But NO Blankie" by Brigitte Elko.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Apples Holes Ants and Bees but NO Blankie by Brigitte Elko is the story of a little girl named Aero, who is having a terrible day. As we first meet Aero, she has just discovered that her favorite blanket, Blankie, is missing. She begins to search for Blankie, but meets with all sorts of obstacles and calamities along the way. As the title suggests, she encounters falling apples, holes in the ground, and various insects that make her search frustrating. Nonetheless she perseveres, knowing that without her Blankie she will be unable to sleep that evening. As night approaches and nothing she tries works, she grows more upset and worried. Of course, since this is a children’s book, the situation eventually resolves in a positive way.

I enjoyed the concept for this book, and I can tell that the author wrote it with love. The illustrations that accompanied the text were bright and eye-catching, and I believe they would hold a child’s interest very well. I also appreciated how the author used some repetition in her phrasing, since I know young children process certain things better when they hear them a few times in a row.

Unfortunately, I had a handful of issues with the story as well. When the book starts out, the main character Aero is already searching for her missing Blankie, with no previous mention of how it went missing. I actually flipped back a page in the text to make sure I hadn’t accidentally skipped one, because it seemed like I was too far into the action. It wasn’t confusing, because I had already read a brief synopsis of the story prior to starting the book, but it seemed like a rather abrupt beginning. I also found a handful of grammatical errors and typos throughout the text. I believe it is especially important to avoid errors in a children’s book, both because the text is so short, but also because children should be learning to read along with their parents from these stories.

One other inconsistency I noticed was within the comprehension level of the story. In the first few pages, there were only a handful of sentences on each page – sometimes the text was so short it would not even fill up two lines. The concepts in these sections were simple, for example, counting to 3 as three apples fall from a tree. Because of these things, I had assumed it was written for younger kids, perhaps 2-4 years old. However, toward the end of the book, the amount of text on the pages grew, with several of the pages having two or three full paragraphs. This amount of text would be too long for the attention span of a 2-4 year old, yet the content of the writing was still aimed at a very young audience.

There is nothing so specifically wrong with this book that would stop me from recommending it to parents looking for something to read to their children. However, given the sheer number of children’s books available, I believe this book would benefit from a round of editing to improve its chances of being noticed. I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.

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Apples Holes Ants And Bees But NO Blankie
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Like bluegreenmarina's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Marissa Michael]

Thank you for your good review.

[kandscreeley]

I think I would be confused about why the story started so abruptly as well. Sounds like a cute story, but you are right. There are SO many children's stories out there that you have to be really, really good!

[MsTri]

I'm not sure I'd be interested in the storyline itself, but it really is a bummer when a children's book doesn't quite hit the mark, especially if it has a lot of grammatical/syntax errors. I also agree that it'd be jarring to just jump into the action minus a precursor; I know many adult novels start off that way, but they always bring the reader up-to-date, which I think would be confusing for a children's book.

[Gunnar Ohberg]

I cannot stand when a children's book has grammatical or spelling errors, for the exact reasons you mention.

[Mpruett-09]

Based off the title and summary I thought this would be a fun book for my 5yr old. Sadly, though, this book will not be added to our shelf. As I have one just learning to read and who has a short attention span, it does not sound like a book he would enjoy.

Thank you for the great review.

[Mercelle]

An abrupt beginning? Wow! I can already see children pestering those who are reading to them with questions.

[pinklover]

The book cover seems appealing but you didn't like it. thanks for the warning for this book. Nice review and thanks for sharing your thoughts in here.