Monday, April 7, 2014

Children's #Review: The Last Akaway (Brody Boondoggle 1)

Book Title:The Last Akaway
Author:  Gary Karton |Website| 
Publisher: Brattle Publishing Group
Genre: Children's Fiction
Series/Standalone: Series Book 1
Format: ebook, hardcover
Cost: $3/99 Z$11.
Pages: 273
How I got it: NetGalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Publisher
Publication Date: 3/22/2014
Add To Goodreads
Synopsis:
What’s an Akaway? An Akaway is a rare and magical creature that connects you to your spirit animal. Once you’ve connected, you have all the special powers that your spirit animal possesses. But those powers are in serious jeopardy when the diabolical Uncle Skeeta tricks 11-year-old Brody Boondoggle into helping him steal the Akaway’s spirit. Now, aided by his skeptical big brother, Jake, and guided by his quirky Grammy, Brody must lead the way on an adventure to defeat Uncle Skeeta, save the last Akaway, and protect the special powers of kids everywhere.
I enjoyed this book immensely. I read this book to my four year old Goddaughter J who absolutely loved it. We read it at night time for a bout 4 days, with about 50 pages per day except the last day we actually started reading earlier and finished the story.  She ran around asking what is an akaway to everyone just so she could crack the joke.  I enjoyed seeing the way she and her brother determined what creatures powers they had that day.

I believe it's engaging enough to hold the attention of young children and certainly entertained both J and her older 10 year old brother, who helped to read to her.  The story is good and the moral of the story is clearly written in and completed in this book. I liked that it was a mystery, and an adventure book that encouraged children to explore the outside world.

The characters are written in a way that allowed the children to see them however they wanted (race wise, since how they looked wasn't mentioned).  The few illustrations made it interesting, I personally loved the chapter titles which kind of let you know what was going to happen.

Gary wrote in a way the younger children could understand and even had the explanations written for them.  My goddaughter J got a kick out of the Akaway joke and so did her brother.  I will be getting the book for him as well as any others that come out.

I think this books is great for children who maybe a little too invested in staying inside. It made the natural world a place to be, a place to want to save and a place of magical adventure.  As a pagan I truly enjoyed the book for what it was trying to teach.  There aren't too many books written for those of us in the 'alternative' lifestyle, the green moms, the homesteaders, the earth worshipers (you know those some call hippies/hipsters/new agey). Although I'm sure * or I don't think he intended to* the author didn't intend to write for us, this is a great book for those of those subcultures to read to their kids, because it speaks to many of our ideals.

I highly recommend this one and suggest getting the package with the animal necklace, or even making the necklace with your children so that it's something to bond over.  I think this is a book any parent would enjoy their children reading.
 ★★★★☆
Happy Reading & May you have many blessed adventures!!!

No comments:

Post a Comment