Book Review - Adrian Beckingham

We, as a family, love to read so when we got the opportunity to review two books we knew that it would be a review that we would enjoy!
I am always trying to encourage Joseph to read more so this was a perfect opportunity!

We were sent two books by the author Adrian Beckingham.

We received copies of:

GobDrop and SnowShine
The King of Things

 

 

In this review I will give you our opinions and thoughts but will try to not go into too much detail of the story as we would hate to spoil the book for you!

We started reading The King of Things first.

The opening page of the book immediately drew Joseph in. He wanted to start reading it straight away. It was the following lines that made him want to know more:

WARNING

This story is an ADULT FREE ZONE.Why? Because it is simply too scary, or too horridly disgusting, for most adults.

This book kept Joseph engaged by asking questions throughout the story.

The questions ask the reader to put themselves in the characters position. This not only kept him engaged but I found that it also made him think about how the characters were feeling and how he would feel if in that situation. This resulted in conversations being started and comparing our thoughts and opinions. It was much more than just reading a book.

Throughout the book there were fun words that made him think about what they might mean. His favourite words were Bangrumble, Shufflebelches, Chumbingaling, Carboodling, and Bumblerimbled.

The story takes the reader to another imaginary land, which is what great books do. However I feel it also has an underlying moral to the tale.
I feel that the moral of the tale is to not bully and pick on others as one day, you too, could be in that position.
Joseph is 9 years old and loved the story but he did need a bit of help reading it due to some of the long words. But he enjoyed spending the time reading with me and was able to read with help.

We next moved on to GobDrop and SnowShine.

This story is based around the North Pole at Christmas time, Santa, the smallest of elves and “the world's most disgusting goblin”. Again I don't want to go into too much detail and spoil any of the story line!

The book is divided into two stories.

First you read SnowShine's story, followed by GobDrop's story. I think that dividing the book up is a great way to teach children that there are always two sides to every story. It is easy to read a book and categorise the characters into the “good” and “bad” sides. This book unusually tells the story from both the “good” side and the “bad” side. This enables the reader to understand how each of the characters have ended up as they are and how they feel.
Again, like The King of Things, this book asks questions throughout the book which I have found that my son has enjoyed sitting back and thinking about how he would react or what he would do.
As with The King of Things my son is reading the majority of the book himself but is needing a little help. However I feel that either an older child or a child who is a more confident reader would have no problems reading it themselves.

Both of these books have given us food for thought and we have enjoyed many a conversation comparing what we think and how we would act if we were the character.

Joseph has given these books 5 out of 5!