The problem with having so many easy readers and picture books on a challenge list is that I can read a half dozen in an hour and then figuring out how to properly blog them is difficult. I’m going to give this a shot… group them by how much I liked them, or didn’t like them… as the case may be.
The Cybils finalists that I did not love were America at War (poems) and Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek (a fiction picture book.) It’s not that they were bad, I just did not LOVE them and I want to love Cybil books. 😉
The poems in America at War were fine. There were some we’d all find familiar and children should definitely be exposed to them. There were some that I’d like us all to find familiar and those were the ones I was happy to see in the book. There were others that… just bored me. And poetry about war should not bore me.
As for Abe and his friend Austin – I liked the premise. I just didn’t like the way the author told the story. While I agree that children should be introduced to the idea that “history” is only a version of what may or may not have happened… I think the whole “back up, have them crawl across the log” was ridiculous. Then the “where’s Austin” page, umm really was that necessary? I don’t know, I just didn’t like the book and when I finished it I was glad I no longer have children who might bring this home and expect me to enjoy reading it to them.
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