Review: The stories are, in a word, delightful.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 30, 2012
I bring you a fabulous book in today's review. Grandpa Hates the Bird, by Eve Yohalem, is a collection of short stories about the adventures of the eponymous Bird and the misadventures of the eponymous Grandpa. My review copy was graciously provided free of charge by the author.I admit that I'm a bit obsessed with unified short story collections/interwoven stories lately, as evidenced by last week's post. But do not, for one second, think that is why I am giving this collection such a rave review. Heck, no. This one is entirely owing to Yohalem's sense of fun, of humor, and of giggle-inducing irony. Let me say right up front: I don't normally review actual children's books. When she contacted me about reviewing her book, and told me it was aimed at readers aged 6-10, I almost sent her the standard "sorry, your book sounds lovely, but I just don't review..." email. Then I read further. Once I saw how she described her book I couldn't help but review it. Here is what she said: (I hope you don't mind my using this Eve, but it's so great that I couldn't not!)"GRANDPA HATES THE BIRD is a collection of comic short stories for readers 6-10. There are very few short story collections available for young readers and one advantage to reading them as ebooks is that a parent in a crowded waiting room or stuck in traffic can hand their cranky child their smartphone with a funny story instead of Angry Birds."Now don't get me wrong. I love the Angry Birds (or the Where's My Water or the Rush Hour or Running Man or whatever game of the day the kids can teach me how to play). I also love the ability to provide entertainment to the kids on the go that things like Angry Birds provides. But I LOVE that someone is out there putting together alternatives to games as a means of doing this. And I LOVE LOVE the manner in which Yohalem accomplished this alternative.The stories are, in a word, delightful. They are fun, engaging, hilarious, revenge-filled without ever being vengeful. They are cute and heart-warming and contain hidden life-lessons about being a good friend, being honest and trustworthy, and being loving. And they are written in a very easy-going and altogether compelling style that appeals to me as a reader, a step-parent, and someone who is more than occasionally worried that the future of our world is in the hands of kids whose main introductions to reading are video game manuals.I strongly encourage you to pick this one up and throw it on your phone, ipad, whatever... You - and the kids in your life - will be exceedingly glad you did!