Author, Nabila Khashoggi sent me a copy of her children’s book, Spartan & the Green Egg.
Description from Goodreads:
Spartan, his three friends, and his dog, Grimm, as they travel the Universe. The mission of this talented team is to gain and share knowledge of their amazing discoveries. With the power of their minds, they made contact with a race of alien explorers, who communicate with them via an egg-shaped spaceship that is itself an organic alien being. Their expeditions are made even more exciting through the use of new technology and cool gadgets, provided by their new friend, who goes by the name of Egg. In Book 1, A Trip to the Rainforest, the team’s introduction to the rainforest and all its wonders is made even more fun by the company of two native Amazonian Indians. Their extraordinary visit is not without a few close calls. After an eye-opening experience with a mysterious Shaman, their own troubles seem to pale in comparison to what they learn. The rainforest is in danger of vanishing, and all its creatures and plant life are at risk of extinction. With the help of the Green Egg’s out-of-this-world technology, the team is able to put a big dent into the path of destruction and re-new hope for the survival of the rainforest.
Review:
My six year old and I read this together. She was really enamoured with the maps. In fact, it took us three tries to sit down and actually read the book because she just wanted to look at the maps and find all of the fun little treasures in them. Once we finally made it past the decorations to the actual book itself she loved the full-color comic book styling and I have to agree with her. It gave the book a little something different.
The environmental themes are ones we’ve all heard before, but I particularly appreciated the clarity with which replenishment was addressed. The reader is not only reminded that we (humanity) need to replace every tree we cut down, but that we need to replace them with the same or similar trees. Otherwise we’ll just end up with a planet full of scrub pines. It did fail to address the loss of mature forests and the effect this has on those who live in and around the jungle, but I suppose only so much can be presented in a children’s book.
I found the little bit of education about Amazonian culture to be interesting. I was a tad concerned that the pictures appeared to be fairly pan-indian, even if the text wasn’t. But my daughter didn’t notice.
Of course not all readers with be 6, but I found the book a bit long for a six year-old’s attention span. The mental transcendentalism in the beginning also went way over her head. She kind of glazed over during that part of the book, but came back strong once the Amazon appeared and cheered for the children’s accomplishments at the end. As an adult I found it all a little abrupt, but it obviously worked on a child’s level. She’s also spent hours just looking at the pictures to find new details in the forest scenes. Oh, and I want that tree house!!
All-in-all, the book would make a good addition to most children’s libraries.
Two last random thoughts:
- This is apparently going to be a ten book series (I think). At least once I think Egg should smoke something for dinner. 🙂
- Is it just me or is the very first sentence in the book’s description a fragment?