Review: City-Hopping Fun
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 9, 2013
How is it that I had no idea this was an entire series? Over the past week or so I've bought a few of Pat Hatt's picture books for my son, but I didn't realize he had already made a huge series of books. I went for the first one in the series, this one, the story of which follows how Tarsier Man was created and his first adventures. So far I love it, and so does my son. And I'll be honest, I'm even learning a few things myself as I read it with him. For example, I almost hate to admit it, but I didn't even know what a tarsier was before this (I just whispered that, don't tell anybody).Anyway, my son is what matters, and he had a ball with this book. He's really into superheroes (his dad's influence) and this is a cute superhero story with an unlikely hero and a great sense of adventure. It's not dark or moody, like Batman, but it's not so wrapped up in its own sense of self-worth and morals that it can't look at the the world in any sense of realism, like Superman (the comics, not the graphic novels). I think children's books can offer a great learning experience to a young child if they're done right, and Tarsier Man passed that test with flying, building-hopping colors. It's obviously geared towards a very young audience, and the rhymes can be hokey at times, but that's all part of the fun. Give it a shot. I'll definitely be running through the rest of this series before long.