Review of
Stan:
The Little Turtle, by Anne Toole, ISBN 9781478782728
Three out of five stars
Nice lesson, prose a bit awkward
While the story
is one that has a happy ending, young children might find parts of the story a
bit frightening. Stan is a young turtle that lives with his mom in a small
pond. Stan is happy swimming in what is his small world and is unwilling to
meet the other creatures, despite his mother’s urging. One day, his mother is
gone and Stan cannot find her. This forces him to ask the other creatures of
the forest for their assistance. She is eventually found and rescued from a
deep hole in the ground, but some children may find the uncertainty in the
middle unsettling.
The primary
pattern of the text is a set of two-line segments that rhyme. While the quality
of the rhymes is good enough for children, the adult that reads the book to a
child will find some of the segments a bit awkward to recite. The level of the
text is that of the second grade reader and the illustrations are well done.
The primary
lesson of this book is that of expanding your horizons and making friends, for
you never know when you may need their help. That is a valuable lesson enmeshed
in prose that is sometimes difficult to say.
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