The Wing Shop

Short review: A boy feels disappointed with the new home his family move to, so he tries to get back to the old home using wings from a mysterious wing shop, but it doesn't go as he planned. I loved the pictures in this book... they have a soft delicate watercolour feeling and lots and lots of detail. Sadly the pictures are the only good things about it... the story is very silly and simple, even for children, and the boy doesn't feel any connection to the wings at all. I don't recommend it unless you just want to look at the pictures... they could make some very beautiful art on a wall.

Writing: Sadly not that good... I think that the message of the story is supposed to be "if your family makes you move home, don't worry, you will like the new place anyway. Also don't try anything silly to get back to the old one". For a story about wings it's very anti-wonder... I mean... what child wants to read a story where all it says is, in a really over-the-top and not subtle way, "you will end up liking this thing you really don't like now and you shouldn't misbehave or you will get into trouble"? I think a parent would buy this for their child to try and make them feel better, but it's not so good for the children.

From a winged person's perspective...: Lots of beautiful pictures... but that's it. There aren't any things in this story that a winged person would connect with I don't think... the boy only wants the wings so he can get home. Not because he wants to fly at all. And the book doesn't have much to do with the sense of wonder.

Trigger warnings: None that I can see.

More thoughts...: Heh... it's hard to have more thoughts about this book because it is a really simple book, just like what I said above. A lot of children's picture books come up in my search for flying books somehow. Some of them are good for even adults, but this one is not so much, and it's not even good for younger children. I give it one out of five, but the art is a four out of five.

From the reviewer: Children's books, part 2

A little while ago I made a post about children's books... I'm going to expand that a little. This time, I'm going to talk about why a lot of books I review are picture books. I imagine that a lot of people who read this site are adults. They may not want to read simple picture books that are very short (although some have some good poetry and stories in fact). So, why are there so many of these books?

Again, as I said before it's that these are the books that turn up when I search for flight in the catalogues that I look through. I use my local library catalogues, and Librarything and Amazon to look for books and this is what I find. Often when I go to pick up a book from the library, I didn't know it was a picture book!

Of course, if I didn't know that, then other people don't know that either. So I mention these books so you can know: this is a short children's picture book. If you're not interested in those books then you know not to get that one now (^-^)

But, others who read this site might be parents. And I want to help those people find books too. So these reviews might be useful for them too. That's why I write a full review, not just "this is a picture book so don't bother to get it"... I'll review every book I find because it may be to some people's interest.

And that's the final reason too. I want to review every book that I find on this subject to have a complete catalogue for people. Even if it ends up not relevant. That way... you can look at the review, and know it's not relevant, and not waste your time.

So... those are the reasons I review picture books. (^-^)

The Things With Wings

Short review: A boy who hates change and a girl with a dream of flight work to uncover the secret of their town. An adventure story for children that can get quite silly, but is very thoughtful about people with wings.... it has some great twists on the usual way these stories go. Recommended for winged people, if you can put up with all the silly jokes, and the fact that it is a typical sort of story.

Writing: The writing is quite average... and the jokes are terrible! The story is also not very surprising. There is some good philosophy throughout the book though.

From a winged person's perspective...: On this scale, the book scores almost perfectly! The girl who longs to fly is consistent about her feelings and doesn't regret her changes at all. Everyone thinks she is a bad influence with too much imagination, but she doesn't care how people see her and keeps her dreams to the very end... her feelings are described well too, and many winged people and people who dream of flight will see themselves in her... from the way that she keeps her room to her nervous excitement of someone who holds a secret very close and precious, when it comes to telling someone about her dreams. A number of other characters who experience that longing are shown too. The book avoids some human-centric thinking that it could have fallen into. The people who shy away from dreams of flight because they don't want their children to be "weird" are not supported. There's a lot of education about butterflies also. The only problem is shown in the strange way that the main girl character reacts to some later events.

Trigger warnings: A mention of rips in wings, though it is not detailed. ( May spoil the story )

( More thoughts... )