[BOOK REVIEW] Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss

Title:  Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories

Author:  Dr. Seuss

Genre:  Animals / School / Rhyming / Lost Stories

Year Published: 2014

Year Read:  2014

Series: Horton the Elephant #3

Publisher: Random House       

Source:  Library   

Content Rating:  Ages 4+ (Nothing Objectionable)

 

Who would have believed that I would find some stories written by Dr. Seuss that were actually lost for many decades?  I was quite surprised when I picked up the latest book by Dr. Seuss called “Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories” and read the stories that have not been published for decades and I was always wondering when I read this book about why these stories were never published in the first place.

In this short collection of lost stories by Dr. Seuss, there are a total of four stories including an introduction about how these stories came to be by Charles D. Cohen.

Horton and the Kwuggerbug

In this story, Horton meets up with a small bug called the Kwuggerbug and the Kwuggerbug tells Horton of a Beezlenut tree where the sweetest Beezlenuts grow and said that he could lead him to the tree if Horton carries him there.  However, Horton will soon realize that the Kwuggerbug is not as innocent as he seems!

Marco Comes Late

When Miss Block asks Marco about why he was late to school, Marco then weaves a tale about how a bird ends up laying an egg on his head and how he meets up with two worms and two large cats who argue with each other about whether or not Marco should keep the bird on his head.

How Officer Pat Saved the Whole Town

When Officer Pat notices a small gnat flying around Thomas the cat, he then realizes that the gnat could cause so much trouble on Mulberry Street if it bites the cat and causes a catastrophic chain reaction that could destroy the town!

The Hoobub and the Grinch

The story starts out with the Grinch (no, not that Grinch) trying to sell a piece of green string to the Hoobub and telling him how the green string is much more useful than the sun.

I have to wonder about how come these stories were never published when they originally came out during the 1950s (even though the introduction by Charles D. Cohen explained why these stories were lost in the first place) as I found these stories to be just as entertaining as Dr. Seuss’ mainstream works.  Dr. Seuss has once again woven an extremely creative and hilarious set of stories that will be memorable for both children and fans of Dr. Seuss in general and I really enjoyed the creative rhyming being woven into this book as they gleefully tell the stories in a humorous way.  Probably my most favorite story out of this collection was “Horton and the Kwuggerbug” since I am a huge fan of Horton in general and the story about Horton being taken advantage of by a small bug really speaks out to me!  Dr. Seuss’ artwork is as usual creative to look at as the characters have exaggerated features that really bring out the hilarious activities that they get involved in.

Overall, “Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories” is a fantastic collection of the lost stories of Dr. Seuss that anyone who is a huge fan of Dr. Seuss will easily enjoy!  I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since the stories are enjoyable for small children!

[BOOK REVIEW] The Dark by Lemony Snicket

Title:  The Dark

Author:  Lemony Snicket

Artist:  Jon Klassen

Genre:  Fear / Courage / Bedtime

Year Published: 2013

Year Read:  2014

Publisher:   Little, Brown and Company

Source:  Library

Content Rating:  Ages 4+ (Some Scary Scenes)

       

 

Now, I will admit that I have not read any of Lemony Snicket’s works before (not even his famous “A Series of Unfortunate Events” series), so consider Lemony Snicket’s children’s book “The Dark,” along with illustrations by Jon Klassen to be my first book that I had read from Lemony Snicket and I must say that I really enjoyed this book!

In this book, a young boy named Laszlo was afraid of the dark, even though the dark was not afraid of him.  One night, Laszlo’s night light goes out and the dark suddenly sneaks into his room and asks him to come downstairs to the basement so it could show Laszlo something.

What will the Dark show Laszlo and is it a good thing or a bad thing?

Read this book to find out!

Now, as I have mentioned before, I had never read a book by Lemony Snicket, even though I have heard of his famous “A Series of Unfortunate Events” books and I assumed that when I saw the title of this children’s book “The Dark,” I thought that this was going to be a horror filled tale that involved a young boy confronting the Dark.  However, while this book can be pretty scary for small children who are afraid of the dark, this book is actually quite cute once I got through it!  I loved the way that Lemony Snicket made the Dark into some kind of living personification of Laszlo’s fears as it entices Laszlo to come down the basement to get something, even though Laszlo has never been down to the basement when it gets dark.  This makes the Dark a pretty frightening presence in the story as we do not know what it wants to show Laszlo or if its intentions are good or bad and it really makes the dark stand out as a huge force in this book.  Jon Klassen’s artwork is both cute and frightening as Laszlo is drawn as a cute little boy who is usually shown in blue pajamas, but most of the pictures are pitch black, especially when the dark comes to visit Laszlo in his bedroom.

Overall, “The Dark” is a cute and inspiring book by Lemony Snicket that will help small children cope with the dark!  I would recommend this book to children ages four and up since the images of the dark filling up the pages might scare some small children.

Top Ten Tuesday #9: Top 10 Bookish Goals for 2015.

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

So today’s Top Ten Tuesday theme is my top 10 bookish goals for 2015 (and I sure have a lot of goals to catch up on)!

So, here's my top 10 Bookish goals for 2015 (in no particular order)!

1.  Clear up my to be read shelf: I have well over 400 books in my TBR shelf and I really want to get through all of my books in my TBR shelf because not only do I want to clear my shelf of books I haven't read yet, but I want to read the books that I have in my TBR shelf and see how good or bad they are!

2.  Read up to at least 100 books in 2015: I had set up a goal for 2014 to read over 100 books and unfortunately, I haven't been able to make it to 100 this year.  But, hopefully in 2015, I will make it to 100 books and have more variety for the books I've read in 2015.

3. Complete at least three Reading Challenges: I have always been pretty terrible when it comes to completing reading challenges, so if I could complete at least three reading challenges in 2015, then I would be really happy!

4. Read more adult and young adult books: There are so many good adult and young adult books out there and I barely made it to reading at least 20 adult and young adult books in one year.  So, in 2015, I'm hoping to read up on more adult and young adult books to gain more variety in what I read.

5. Get up to at least 1,000 reviews on my book blog: Even though I am at my halfway point in reviews on my book blog, I really want to reach 1,000 reviews for my blog in 2015, which is a pretty big accomplishment to complete!

6. Explore more book blogs: Even though I have been exploring many book blogs a lot in 2014, I want to explore even more blogs and see what other interesting book blogs are out there.

7. Finish up on the reviews I need to write: Even though I have read many books, there are some books I haven't given my reviews to yet and I want to give those books that I've read my honest opinions on what I thought about the content and the characters.

8. Reread some older books: There are a lot of books I had read when I was younger and I want to get the chance to reread those books again whenever I get the chance, especially the "Harry Potter" series!

9. Read at least five books a week: This year, I usually read at least three books a week, but I want to up my reading experience a bit by reading at least five books a week instead of three.

10.  Catch up on some classic books: I really want to read up on some good old fashion classics like "Frankenstein," "A Christmas Carol" and some of Edgar Allen Poe's works and 2015 seems like a fresh start!

So, what are your top 10 bookish goals for 2015? Please feel free to answer in the comments below!

Posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2014