A Place To Call Home

A brand new book (2011) with all the bells and whistles that I wish would shut the heck up!                     

THREE PROS

*Has the look and feel of something that you would want to buy right now, but looks can be deceiving
*There are the makings of humor and high-caliber learning in here, yet they are assembled with such heavy-handedness that they never really amount to much    

*Teaches the value of sticking up for family when it is threatened by an outside party 

THREE CONS 

*I don't care if you are trying to read this to your kid (like I did) or to yourself, but the pacing is just so effed up since virtually every page has all seven siblings talking in a disjointed manner  

*It goes on and on and on and on and on.....and on

*I still don't know what to call the animals in question -- we refer to them as squirrels since my son knows what squirrels are, but I think they are gerbils (even though I have never seen a gerbil living out in the wild)

ONE DAD'S OPINION

I was so excited when I found this sitting out in the open at the library.  It is in near perfect condition since it is so new -- and lacks the identifying smell associated with the other books living under the same Arlington roof.  Plus the cover is so sturdy and the images are so vivid.  "How it could ever be bad?", I thought to myself.  It was worse than I could have ever imagined.  Seriously, it might be one of the five worst books I have ever opened since my son was born.  Sorry, author Alexis Deacon, but you blew it with this one.                    

Buy / Borrow / Donate / DESTROY