I received “The Beaver Kid's Adventures” by Elena Dobrina from the Dorrance Publishing Co. to review. I was very intrigued by the thought of a children's chapter book that cost $88. This book was intended for children that love animals and are able to read chapter books (probably ages 7-9). Each short chapter includes lovely color pictures of the beavers and their homes and dangers. The book even includes a glossary, which I thought would be helpful for beginning readers.
The book tells the story of a young beaver, the Beaver Kid, and all of his adventures (including a flood, poachers, bears, and a circus). The story line is a good one for kids who love animals, but after reading the book, I think that children would have a very hard time with this one. The writer uses several large words (some incorrectly), and there were many sentences in the book that were long and confusing. I tried to look up some of the large words in the glossary, but the ones I needed were not there. The glossary was also not in correct alphabetical order, which made it harder to look up any words. Many of the included definitions were confusing as well. “Deer” was one of the included words, and here is the definition given, “a big artiodactyl animal with some branchy horns.”
The pictures in the book are good, but I feel that this book would be very confusing to young readers.
