Review of "What Was I Thinking? Volume 1: My Brainy Friend," by Zac Lange

Review of

What Was I Thinking? Volume 1: My Brainy Friend, by Zac Lange ISBN 9780996849012

Four out of five stars

 

The tactic used to make the points in this book is a bit unusual, the two main characters are a boy and his brain and they are depicted as separate entities. They occupy opposite sides of a teeter-totter, sit next to each other on a roller coaster and the brain sometimes goes elsewhere when the boy does something. Especially when that event leads to something bad happening.

 In this case the bad thing is the kicking of a ball in the house that leads to the destruction of a flower vase. When Mom demands to know why he did it, the boy has no answer, other than to say that he didn’t mean to break the vase. This leads to the lesson of the book, that you use your brain and think about the possible negative consequences of your actions before you commit them.

 Once the boy decides to form a team with his well-functioning brain, they plan to stay out of trouble and spend a lot of time learning things. One of the final images has the boy at a table with large piles of books on both sides. This is always a good message for children.

While the plot is of course symbolic and never meant to be considered real, the message is a solid one and the fundamental lesson is one that we all must learn and re-learn. We should never stop learning and always think about the possible consequences of an action before we commit it. 

This book was made available for free for review purposes.