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pridiansky's review
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
I bought this at a local book sale solely for the cover! I am so in love with the coloring and composition of it. It feels magical and there's this nostalgic innocence to it. I was not surprised to see that it was published in 1986. It makes me want to go find more out-of-print children's books. I'm sure there are some lost gems that I'd love to have in my collection. ^_^
As for the story, it's just a simplistic fantasy romp with two likeable kids and a pet monkey. At less than 100 pages, this book obviously wasn't trying to accomplish anything revolutionary, but it was still fun! If you enjoy simple, light-hearted kid's fantasy, then this is absolutely that. I enjoy that simplistic innocence without complication. It reminds me of other books I read as a kid. And I think that a younger kid would absolutely find this enjoyable if they like fantasy. I would also suggest a book called 'The Castle In The Attic' by: Elizabeth Winthrop, which has had the good fortune of being reprinted, unlike this book. It has a somewhat similar premise, but is a little more fleshed out. :)
The one thing I will say about this book is that there is a set of clues peppered throughout the book in order for you to solve a separate riddle that isn't relevant to the plot of the story. I thought it was a clever and fun idea, but after having read it, I know I wouldn't have been able to solve the riddle. I'm not saying it's not possible, but I'm pretty confident that no kid is going to catch the clues and solve it themself. There's a riddle at the beginning of the book that caused me to make an early guess that somehow seemed to have its own set of clues that would have made sense throughout the book, and I was somewhat confident I had it right, but that was not the case. If the author somehow predicted the assumption that would be made from the first clue and purposely wrote in fake clues, then I'm thoroughly fucking impressed, let me tell you. But, then at the end of the book the clue list was given and it had nothing to do with what I thought it was. So, I made a pretty close guess based off of that but was still wrong. I don't feel bad because it wasn't in my wheelhouse anyway, so I could have guessed for forever and still not gotten it. The thing is, one of the clues is a set of dates, one of those dates being 1986 when the book was published. So, maybe kids in 1986 would have been able to guess the riddle, but kids now would just be miffed. And this adult was too. XDD
As a side note, this author was also the author of the popular Saddle Club and Pony Tails horse series from the late 80s. I recognized those titles and many others! The wiki article is way too short, but maybe the author prefers her privacy. This book wasn't even mentioned!
As for the story, it's just a simplistic fantasy romp with two likeable kids and a pet monkey. At less than 100 pages, this book obviously wasn't trying to accomplish anything revolutionary, but it was still fun! If you enjoy simple, light-hearted kid's fantasy, then this is absolutely that. I enjoy that simplistic innocence without complication. It reminds me of other books I read as a kid. And I think that a younger kid would absolutely find this enjoyable if they like fantasy. I would also suggest a book called 'The Castle In The Attic' by: Elizabeth Winthrop, which has had the good fortune of being reprinted, unlike this book. It has a somewhat similar premise, but is a little more fleshed out. :)
The one thing I will say about this book is that there is a set of clues peppered throughout the book in order for you to solve a separate riddle that isn't relevant to the plot of the story. I thought it was a clever and fun idea, but after having read it, I know I wouldn't have been able to solve the riddle. I'm not saying it's not possible, but I'm pretty confident that no kid is going to catch the clues and solve it themself. There's a riddle at the beginning of the book that caused me to make an early guess that somehow seemed to have its own set of clues that would have made sense throughout the book, and I was somewhat confident I had it right, but that was not the case. If the author somehow predicted the assumption that would be made from the first clue and purposely wrote in fake clues, then I'm thoroughly fucking impressed, let me tell you. But, then at the end of the book the clue list was given and it had nothing to do with what I thought it was. So, I made a pretty close guess based off of that but was still wrong. I don't feel bad because it wasn't in my wheelhouse anyway, so I could have guessed for forever and still not gotten it. The thing is, one of the clues is a set of dates, one of those dates being 1986 when the book was published. So, maybe kids in 1986 would have been able to guess the riddle, but kids now would just be miffed. And this adult was too. XDD
As a side note, this author was also the author of the popular Saddle Club and Pony Tails horse series from the late 80s. I recognized those titles and many others! The wiki article is way too short, but maybe the author prefers her privacy. This book wasn't even mentioned!
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