A review by mehsi
Maddy Kettle: The Adventure of the Thimblewitch by Eric Orchard
4.0
Received this book from Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review.
*EDIT*
I received a new copy from the publisher, because of the jumbled format of the copy I got from Netgalley.
So did the story make sense this time? Did it seem better?
Yes, yes it did. I finally understood what was happening, why the parents where turned like that, and what happened before they ended up on a train in the middle of nowhere. I really like the story, and because I finally can follow the story I will up my rating to 4 stars. However, I will stick to my point that the book could have been even better had it been longer. I feel like it was all a bit rushed. Yes we got explanations, but I think the journey, the trip, the before story could have been more fleshed out.
And also the same thing I said before goes for the ending, even with the story now intact, the ending was a bit weird. Everything is solved, yet there is still a problem and they are off again? So does that mean we get a book 2? Is this a series?
*END OF EDIT*
I also at times rate based on the format and how that looked, so hereby: this book gets -1 star. The ascm I received from Netgalley is all jumbled and mixed up. You start at page 8, then until ~40 it is ok, but after that you get random first pages (pages 1 to 8 are randomly found through the book), there are also some empty pages, and I am not sure if it was supposed to end like the way it did. I checked my ascm twice, even downloading it again, but sadly it was all jumbled and strange.
This sadly also caused me to lose track of the story even more than I already did. It seems like a nice story, but with all the jumbleness I am not even sure how everything started or how everything ended. Maybe it would have been better when everything was in order, but I think even then I would have been confused. The book is only 90 pages and you got quite a lot of story to stuff into it. The whole mom-dad changing into mice story, the magical toad, the witch and her problem, the goblins and their stuff. I think it would have been better if the book was longer.
I did like the main character, she was really interesting, though again, thanks to the jumbled pages I had no clue how she got into this mess. :) Still she is super brave and will do anything for her parents, but also for someone like the witch.
The illustrations are pretty gorgeous and remind me of another illustrators work. There are some page wide illustrations, which are absolutely lovely (like the one of the mountain, or of the witch her house).
The ending (maybe because of the jumbled stuff, though again, it was mostly the beginning part and some parts missing), was strange, weird and I am not even sure what happened. I know this is book one, but to end the book like that? No.
All in all, I wouldn't recommend the book. It was nice and fun, but the whole jumbled stuff, too much story in one small thing and the ending make me say that people might not enjoy it.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
*EDIT*
I received a new copy from the publisher, because of the jumbled format of the copy I got from Netgalley.
So did the story make sense this time? Did it seem better?
Yes, yes it did. I finally understood what was happening, why the parents where turned like that, and what happened before they ended up on a train in the middle of nowhere. I really like the story, and because I finally can follow the story I will up my rating to 4 stars. However, I will stick to my point that the book could have been even better had it been longer. I feel like it was all a bit rushed. Yes we got explanations, but I think the journey, the trip, the before story could have been more fleshed out.
And also the same thing I said before goes for the ending, even with the story now intact, the ending was a bit weird. Everything is solved, yet there is still a problem and they are off again? So does that mean we get a book 2? Is this a series?
*END OF EDIT*
I also at times rate based on the format and how that looked, so hereby: this book gets -1 star. The ascm I received from Netgalley is all jumbled and mixed up. You start at page 8, then until ~40 it is ok, but after that you get random first pages (pages 1 to 8 are randomly found through the book), there are also some empty pages, and I am not sure if it was supposed to end like the way it did. I checked my ascm twice, even downloading it again, but sadly it was all jumbled and strange.
This sadly also caused me to lose track of the story even more than I already did. It seems like a nice story, but with all the jumbleness I am not even sure how everything started or how everything ended. Maybe it would have been better when everything was in order, but I think even then I would have been confused. The book is only 90 pages and you got quite a lot of story to stuff into it. The whole mom-dad changing into mice story, the magical toad, the witch and her problem, the goblins and their stuff. I think it would have been better if the book was longer.
I did like the main character, she was really interesting, though again, thanks to the jumbled pages I had no clue how she got into this mess. :) Still she is super brave and will do anything for her parents, but also for someone like the witch.
The illustrations are pretty gorgeous and remind me of another illustrators work. There are some page wide illustrations, which are absolutely lovely (like the one of the mountain, or of the witch her house).
The ending (maybe because of the jumbled stuff, though again, it was mostly the beginning part and some parts missing), was strange, weird and I am not even sure what happened. I know this is book one, but to end the book like that? No.
All in all, I wouldn't recommend the book. It was nice and fun, but the whole jumbled stuff, too much story in one small thing and the ending make me say that people might not enjoy it.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/