[BOOK REVIEW] Randy's Dandy Lions by Bill Peet

Title:  Randy's Dandy Lions

Author:  Bill Peet

Genre:  Circus / Animals / Training / Children's

Year Published: 1964

Year Read:  2010

Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Company

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 5+  (A Scene of Bullying)

Buy or Add on:  Amazon  //  Goodreads

“Randy’s Dandy Lions” is another classic book from the creative mind of Bill Peet about how Randy’s lions always had stage fright but they realized that there are things far scarier than stage fright.  “Randy’s Dandy Lions” is a superb book about friendship that children will enjoy for many years.

Bill Peet has done it again with his brilliant illustrations and witty writing.  Bill Peet’s writing is cleverly written in a rhyming prose, making this story similar to Dr. Seuss’ children’s books, thus making the story extremely creative to read as children will have fun putting the rhyming words together.  Bill Peet’s illustrations are beautiful as usual in this book, especially in the images of the lions performing on stage as the lions are innocent looking yet also look a bit cowardly and scraggly, which fit the situation that the lions were in perfectly.

Parents should know that the new trainer that he Colonel hires to replace Randy may frighten smaller children, especially during the scenes where the new trainer starts whipping the lions relentlessly.  Parents might want to tell their children that it is not good to mistreat pets in this manner and that one should not use brute force to get what he or she wants.

“Randy’s Dandy Lions” is another great classic from the brilliant mind of Bill Peet and will surely attract many children who are fans of Bill Peet’s marvelous work.  I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since smaller children might be frightened by the new trainer who comes later on in the book.

You might also like:

• Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent by Bill Peet

• The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock by Bill Peet

• The Caboose Who Got Loose by Bill Peet

[BOOK REVIEW] Encore for Eleanor by Bill Peet

Title:  Encore for Eleanor

Author:  Bill Peet

Genre:  Animals / Children's / Circus / Artist

Year Published: 1981

Year Read:  2010

Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Company

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 4+  (Nothing Objectionable)

Buy or Add on:  Amazon  //  Goodreads

“Encore for Eleanor” is a cute story by Bill about an old elephant named Eleanor who was once a great circus performer, but was moved to the zoo when she got too old to play her part.  It was then at the zoo that Eleanor learns a new special ability that might jumpstart her career again.  “Encore for Eleanor” is a great book for children who want to discover new talents for themselves and realize that everyone is special in their own way.

Eleanor the elephant was once a great circus star who would stand on stilts and impressed the audience to no end.  One day however, since Eleanor has been performing in the circus for forty years, Eleanor’s knees were weak and suddenly, she fell off the stilts and landed on the floor with a hard crash!  Eleanor began to worry that her boss, Colonel T.J. Tinglehoffer was going to send her away because of her ruining her act by falling off the stilts.  Sure enough, Colonel Tinglehoffer did send Eleanor away to the zoo and Eleanor bade a tearful goodbye to her friends at the circus. 
Even though Eleanor had plenty to eat and good home to stay in, she still missed the circus life and was miserable because she felt like she could not do anything extraordinary like she used to do in the circus.  One day, however Eleanor awoke to find a teenage girl trying to draw a rhinoceros on her canvas.  Of course, when the rhinoceros moved and girl could not draw the rhinoceros, the girl became angry and threw her charcoal to the ground.  Eleanor was so interested in what the girl was doing, that she wanted to learn how to draw also.  So, when the girl went off to see some ducks in the pond, Eleanor slyly picked up the charcoal and she decided to draw one of the clowns from the circus.  However, Eleanor was soon discovered drawing the picture by the teenage girl and the teenage girl was so impressed by the drawing that she decided to show the picture to everyone.  Everyone was impressed except for Mr. McJunkens, who did not believe that Eleanor drew the clown.  Eleanor was so mad that she grabbed the charcoal and… 

What does Eleanor draw and will she able to convince Mr. McJunkens that she can really draw? 
  

Read the rest of the book to find out! 

Bill Peet’s story of an old elephant who wants to be special again is extremely cute and brilliant for children to read.  The scene that stood out the most for me was the scene where Eleanor learns how to draw after she witnesses the teenage girl drawing the rhinoceros.  That scene was so amazing because you would have never imagined an elephant drawing such a great picture and drew the picture in a matter of seconds.  Bill Peet’s illustrations are beautiful and detailed, especially of the image of Eleanor herself as she looks beautiful in her circus outfit and yet, she maintains wise appearance throughout the story telling the audience that she has indeed aged after performing in the circus for forty years.

“Encore for Eleanor” is a great book about the importance of trying out new activities in life to keep your life going and will surely encourage many children to follow what they believe in and do many new things in their lives.  I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.

You might also like:

• Fly Homer Fly by Bill Peet

• The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock by Bill Peet

• Kermit the Hermit by Bill Peet

[BOOK REVIEW] Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Title:  Caraval

Author:  Stephanie Garber

Genre: Fantasy

Year Published: 2017

Number of Pages: 407 pages

Date Read: 10/11/2017

Series: Caraval #1

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 15+ (Themes of Child Abuse and Deaths)

Trigger Warnings:  Child Abuse

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

“Every person has the power to change their fate if they are brave enough to fight for what they desire more than anything.” 

2017 is the year of new releases that are full of books that contain adventure, romance, horror and excitement and I happened to stumble upon a new release for this year called “Caraval” by Stephanie Garber and I was seriously blown away by this book!

Scarlett Dragna has lived on a tiny island for most of her life, along with her little sister Donatella Dragna and her cruel and powerful father Governor Dragna.  One day, Scarlett’s father has decided to arrange a marriage between Scarlett and a Lord that she does not know and even though Scarlett believes that this would be the only way to escape her miserable life on the island and her abusive father, Scarlett still thinks that something is missing from her life.  It wasn’t until that very day that Scarlett meets a roguish and mysterious sailor named Julian who offered Scarlet the chance to visit the place of Scarlett’s deepest dreams:  CARAVAL!  Even though Scarlett was unsure about going to Caraval because she feared that her father will punish her severely for her disobedience, Scarlett decided to leave the island once she finds out that her sister Donatella had suddenly vanished from the island.  So, Scarlett and Julian set out to the mysterious island of Caraval to find Donatella; but once Scarlet gets to Caraval, she will soon discover that her sister Donatella is a part of some sort of sadistic game where whoever finds Donatella will be able to receive a wish from the legendary magician Legend himself!  So, Scarlett and Julian try to compete in the game in order to find Donatella before it is too late!

Wow!  Stephanie Garber has truly woven a truly magical and intense story about the importance of sibling love while also exploring the importance of true love!  Stephanie Garber has done a brilliant job at detailing the magical world of Caraval as the concept of this world is that everyone is doing a performance for the people and you have to decide what is real and what is not real in order to survive the game!  I loved the fact that this book focuses on a carnival theme as it is rare for me to read a young adult book that involves carnivals and games as a major plot of the story.  I loved the way that Stephanie Garber focused on the sisterly relationship between Scarlett and Donatella as it is also rare that I had read young adult books that focuses mostly on the relationship between siblings and I loved the fact that Scarlett truly does care about her sister Donatella and is willing to put her life on the line in order to protect Donatella from any kind of danger in the world of Caraval.  But what I loved the most in this book was the relationship shared between Julian and Scarlett!  When I went into this book, I actually thought that this book was just going to be about the sisterly relationship between Scarlett and Donatella and while that was a major part of the plot, it was Julian and Scarlett’s relationship with each other that really sold me!  I loved the fact that Julian and Scarlett both brought out the positive aspects in each other, such as Julian bringing out the bravery in Scarlett that she has held back due to her father instilling fear in her and Scarlett bringing out a softer side to Julian who was introduced as being aloof and not caring about who he hurts to get what he wants until he met Scarlett.  Even though their romantic bantering was downplayed in this book, it was still interesting seeing how different these two are from each other and yet, they become quite a compatible pair!

 

For anyone who does not like some language in this book, there is some language in this book, although it is not as strong as some other young adult books.  Also, this book deals with the subject of child abuse as both Scarlett and Donatella are beaten up by their father for various reasons and that might be uncomfortable for some readers to handle.

***SPOILER WARNING!!!***

This is a bit of a small nitpick for me, but the fact that it turned out that Donatella put her own sister through the game and tricking her into thinking that she died to prove Scarlett’s love for her kind of rubbed me the wrong way.  This made me see Donatella as being a bit manipulative towards Scarlett in making a deal with Legend without telling Scarlett and it made me question about whether or not Donatella actually cared about Scarlett’s feelings during the whole ordeal.

***SPOILER WARNING!!!***

Overall, “Caraval” is a wonderful book about the importance of sisterly love and anyone who loves reading books about siblings will surely enjoy this book!  I will definitely be checking out the second book as soon as it is released!

You might also like: 

• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

[BOOK REVIEW] Morris and Boris at the Circus by Bernard Wiseman

Title:  Morris and Boris at the Circus

Author:  Bernard Wiseman

Genre:  Animals / Comedy / Friendship / Circus

Year Published: 1988

Year Read:  2016

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Series: Morris and Boris 

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 3+  (Nothing Objectionable)

Buy on:  Amazon  //  Book Depository 

I have been reading Bernard Wiseman’s (or B. Wiseman in most of his releases) “Morris the Moose” series ever since I was little and I never would have thought that there were more “Morris the Moose” books out there, especially the ones that also stars Morris’ friend Boris the Bear!  So, when I picked up “Morris and Boris at the Circus,” I was pleasantly surprised with the wacky style of this story!

The story starts off with Boris the Bear telling Morris the Moose that there is a circus in town and Morris did not know anything about the circus since he had never gone to one before.  So, Boris decided to take Morris to the circus and show him what the circus is all about.  At the circus, Boris showed Morris the various tigers, lions and clowns performing for the audience, but then Morris notices that there are no moose in the circus and he asks the ringmaster if he could join the circus.

Can Morris perform any of the acts in the circus and will he drive Boris crazy with his mistakes?

Read this book to find out!

B. Wiseman has done an awesome job at writing this story as it is extremely hilarious and witty to read as I enjoyed the crazy adventures that Morris and Boris have in the circus!  I loved the way that B. Wiseman wrote the relationship between Morris and Boris as they have that “odd couple” feel as they are polar opposites to each other and yet they are still friends despite the various misunderstandings between them.  I loved the fact that Morris continuously drives Boris crazy with his constant mistakes in trying to perform circus tricks as it brings so much humor and wit to the story and I found myself laughing out loud with Morris making mistakes during the circus performances while Boris is desperately trying to get Morris to understand the core concept of the circus!  I also loved the fact that both Morris and Boris have different personalities as Morris is shown to be the well-intentioned goofy character to Boris’ more stern and irritating sidekick who tries to straighten Morris out and it was great seeing the hilarious relationship between these two characters!  B. Wiseman’s artwork is truly hilarious to look at as Morris is shown to be a goofy looking character with buck teeth that is shown to always be smiling on each page, while Boris is shown as a much bigger character than Morris and he is usually portrayed with a frown on his face on each page as he constantly has to deal with Morris’ crazy antics.  I also loved the circus scenes as it was great seeing various circus performers performing for the audience and my favorite image in this book was of the dogs doing tricks such as walking on their hands and then bowing to the audience as it looks truly adorable to me.

Overall, “Morris and Boris at the Circus” is a fantastic and hilarious read about the adventures of Morris and Boris and the mayhem they cause at the circus!  I would recommend this book to children ages three and up since there is nothing inappropriate in this book.