Hello My Name Is Bob

My wife and my son have this thing going right now where they call each other Bob.  No one is quite sure how it started, but it's pretty cute.  So I figured I'd grab this one while the iron was hot and see if he'd get a kick out of it...                    

THREE PROS

*Linas Alsenas intentions for the premise come from a good place

*Correctly predicts that I would be bored by the end

*The vanilla ice cream imagery equating to Bob's milquetoast side is smart

THREE CONS 

*My biggest problem with the book is that Alsenas seems to possess the proper skills to turn out something great but just didn't do it here

*Never really tells you why these bears would be friends, just that they are -- which is OK, but I think kids deserve more of an explanation if you're gonna dedicate a story to this subject 

*Speaking of ice cream, it appears that Jack's parents must be extremely wealthy to pay for what appears to be about a $50 ice cream cone -- although maybe we're talking 50 Krona since the author now lives in Stockholm (still, that's roughly $8 in frozen dairy for a juvenile panda, who is used to eating bamboo 99% of the time)

ONE DAD'S OPINION

Here's the problem.  When you set out to show how someone drab can be friends with someone exciting, you run a risk by taking the viewpoint of the boring guy.  I totally see why you would do it (if a kid feels lame, it might speak more to him than if it was presented from the opposite side).  But, in this instance, Bob slows things down too much and is forced to tell you that he and Jack are friends instead of showing you why Jack chooses to hang out with Bob.  In short, it's a case of the final result not meeting expectations...                 

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