April 2023 Book of the Month Giveaway
May 20, 2023 03:52 PM Posted by juliannadouglas
During the month of April, I read three full-length novels, two novellas, a short story and a children’s book. Nearly all of them were good, but there was only one that received five stars from me and it happened to be the children’s books. It’s a non-fiction picture book that teaches kids all about sea horses. They’ll learn things like where sea horses live and how they can hide in the coral by camouflaging themselves to their surroundings, what they eat, who their predators are, and how they swim. It also discusses how these tiny sea creatures mate for life and how they reproduce. After seeing this book pop up a number of times on recent lists of books being banned in schools and libraries, I had to find out what all the fuss was about. IMHO, it’s nothing but that: just a manufactured fuss over nothing. Sure the book talks about how sea horses mate and reproduce, but it’s done so in a gentle, completely age-appropriate and non-offensive way. There’s nothing explicit. It just relates factual information about these wondrous creatures. I thought the book was adorable and the gently flowing narrative soothing. It’s sweet that sea horses mate for life and their courtship dance is cute. I had no idea that it’s the males who gestate and give birth to their young. The illustrations are a lovely compliment to the text, done in shades of bluish-green, to mimic the ocean, with splashes of browns and reds to give it some extra color. I thoroughly enjoyed this sweet book that definitely doesn’t deserve the bad rap that some people are trying to give it. I highly recommended it for early elementary age kids who are interested in animals or sea life. That’s why I’m naming Chris Butterworth’s Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea as my April Book of the Month. If you enjoy books that teach little ones about nature, then you should definitely give this book a try.
Categories: Book of the Month, Giveaways
Tags: Chris Butterworth
