Saturday, January 26, 2013

Candy and the Cankersaur

It's a day of firsts for me!  For the first time, I used my iPad mini to read an ebook.  I'm also trying a feature I've never participated in before, called Kid Konnection.

Published in 2012, Candy and the Cankersaur is an ebook for children by Jason Sandberg. I don't usually read ebooks, but when the author invited me to take a look at his book, I decided to read it because the book is not currently available in print form.






Although money cannot buy happiness, it can buy you a sensational pet.  A young, well-to-do girl named Candy gets a pet dinosaur from her father, Mister Wellington, who only wants to make his daughter happy.  When the Cankersaurus Rex arrives at the Wellington mansion by helicopter from the Island that Time Forgot, Candy is thrilled.  She names her new pet Cank, and attempts to teach him not to bite.  Chucky, Candy's best friend and neighbor, becomes jealous and asks his (rather matronly-looking) mother if he can also have a dinosaur as a pet.  She tells him in no uncertain terms that he cannot--dinosaurs are extinct, after all.  Crestfallen, Chucky decides to take matters into his own hands. Wearing his signature sailor suit, Chucky kidnaps Cank, and eventually leaves him at a circus.

This book is adorable! Candy and the Cankersaur seems to be the right length for young children, 28 pages, with a few lines of text on each page.  There's some drama and tension in the story, enough to capture and hold the interest of children.  The author thinks that this picture book would work well as a bedtime story for children ages 3-6, and as a read-alone book for children ages 6-9.

The drawings are fabulous!  I loved how this book looked on my iPad mini. While I was reading it I marveled over how wonderful the pictures looked. The pages fit beautifully on the screen.  The colors of the cartoons are pleasing and the illustrations have the perfect amount of detail, neither too much nor too little.  After I read this book, I wished that my young nephews lived closer so that I could share the book with them on my iPad mini (maybe I'm not completely old-school if I can picture reading to them in this way).

With this book Jason Sandberg pays homage to author Syd Hoff, who wrote the book Danny and the Dinosaur (notice the similar titles and the pet dinosaurs).  I know kids are fascinated by dinosaurs and that many kids would probably like to have them as pets. (When I was a child, I longed to have a chimpanzee as a pet, but that's a story for another day.) 

I'm sure this book would stimulate the imaginations of young children.  As a child I loved looking at picture books, and I still remember the impact they had on me. I wanted to stare at the pictures for as long as possible, as if that would somehow enable me to enter the world on the pages.  This book would have a similar effect on children, I think.  It's simply charming.


Kid Connection is a fun feature hosted by Booking Mama each Saturday.  If you'd like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post related to children's books (picture, middle grade, or young adult), please stop by Booking Mama and add your post to the Mister Linky.

Your comments are welcomed.

16 comments:

  1. Oh I wish I had a tablet so I could see the drawings.

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  2. I don't usually read kid's books but this does sound cute.

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  3. My kids and I also love books about dinosaurs, any kind, fiction and non-fiction. This one sounds and looks adorable.

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  4. This does sound very cute Suko! Glad you enjoyed this one on your ipad mini. I'm 100% hooked on my ereader.

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    1. Naida, I think I may use my iPad mini as my ereader. My phone's too small, and my computer's too large, but my mini is just right (I sound like Goldilocks).

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  5. I've been meaning to join this Saturday meme, but just haven't managed to yet. This book sounds adorable. Thanks for blogging about it.

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    1. Diane, I enjoyed trying Kid Konnection, and added this feature to my Memes page. I hope you will try it as well, one Saturday.

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  6. I have to say "Thank you" again for being open-minded about reviewing a picture book. I think that picture books can be the seed for a lifelong love of reading. And as a painter I'm usually creating frozen moments in time, so it's refreshing to be able to tell a narrative.

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    1. Jason, let me mention here that I enjoyed the bits of humor in Candy and the Cankersaur. Also, it's not too wordy, so parents who read it to their children won't grow weary at story time. Kids will want to linger over the incredible, colorful drawings. Thanks so much for sharing your work with me!

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  7. Oh, this sounds like a cute, fun book to read with young ones. However, my baby is 45 years old, so guess I will pass this one. ; ) However, it was a nice review for mothers with young ones to entertain.

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  8. LOL at the Cankersaur .... its cute and its adorable I'm stoke at the cover of the book.

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  9. Hoping Candy and the Cankersaur becomes available in print soon, I'd love to read it.

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  10. What a fantastic and thorough review. I haven't read a picture book on my iPad yet, but I have read a few books. Thanks so much for sharing!

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  11. While I am searching about Kindle eBooks, I have found Bella’s Ball Story [Kindle Edition].
    Bella's Ball is a children's story, written by Annaliese Chatterton, about a butterfly named Bella who wants to enter the Flutterfly Ball but finds herself feeling afraid. Though her friends encourage her to enter, Bella comes across several other bugs who do not think she is flutter material, causing her to question herself and whether she is really good enough for the ball. After hearing a story from the Ladybug Teller, Bella makes her final decision. I think a lot of little babies would love it!

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