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A review by dragonbitebooks
Arctic Bears Chase by Steve Fiffer, Steve Fiffer
3.0
I won a copy of Arctic Bears Chase on Goodreads. This being my first, quite unexpected, and unlooked for prize, I may be disposed to view Arctic Bears Chase a little less impartially than I have some of the other books that I’ve reviewed here.
Arctic Bears Chase is a book consisting of a single, alphabetically building sentence with corresponding illustrations. The concept intrigued me, and so I entered my name for the drawing.
Intriguing though I still find the concept, I feel as if it might have been executed with more finesse, while recognizing how difficult such a book, such a sentence is to craft, particularly while making it appropriate for the young target audience.
In 10 minutes or less, I dashed off a sentence using the same concept, but mine included words too lofty for a toddler audience, perhaps even more grammatical awkwardness, and would have been much harder to illustrate (I ended up with 11 adjectives and four nouns describing rain). I like the rhythm of the noun participle pairings that Arctic Bears Chase uses, but would otherwise have wanted more variation in structure.
What really rubs me about this book is how quickly the novelty of the nonsensical wears off and how quickly the illustrations cease building into a full story but instead dissolve into creative drawings that do not connect to one another except by the inclusion of the previous character. Arctic bears disappeared from the illustrations by the letter ‘I,’ and the illustrations ceased to build coherently after ‘F,’ when the frog is suddenly no longer in the tree.
I am 23. I am not the intended audience for this book nor have I been able yet to interact with a child who is the target age to watch his reaction. Perhaps a toddler would be more able to enjoy the rhythm and nonsense of the story.
Before signing off, I do want to warn that I know I can be a harsh judge of children’s literature.
Thanks, Mr. Fiffer and Miss Roberts for the book! I will try and get it read by younger children who cross my path and flip through it myself too when I need a laugh.
Arctic Bears Chase is a book consisting of a single, alphabetically building sentence with corresponding illustrations. The concept intrigued me, and so I entered my name for the drawing.
Intriguing though I still find the concept, I feel as if it might have been executed with more finesse, while recognizing how difficult such a book, such a sentence is to craft, particularly while making it appropriate for the young target audience.
In 10 minutes or less, I dashed off a sentence using the same concept, but mine included words too lofty for a toddler audience, perhaps even more grammatical awkwardness, and would have been much harder to illustrate (I ended up with 11 adjectives and four nouns describing rain). I like the rhythm of the noun participle pairings that Arctic Bears Chase uses, but would otherwise have wanted more variation in structure.
What really rubs me about this book is how quickly the novelty of the nonsensical wears off and how quickly the illustrations cease building into a full story but instead dissolve into creative drawings that do not connect to one another except by the inclusion of the previous character. Arctic bears disappeared from the illustrations by the letter ‘I,’ and the illustrations ceased to build coherently after ‘F,’ when the frog is suddenly no longer in the tree.
I am 23. I am not the intended audience for this book nor have I been able yet to interact with a child who is the target age to watch his reaction. Perhaps a toddler would be more able to enjoy the rhythm and nonsense of the story.
Before signing off, I do want to warn that I know I can be a harsh judge of children’s literature.
Thanks, Mr. Fiffer and Miss Roberts for the book! I will try and get it read by younger children who cross my path and flip through it myself too when I need a laugh.