Showing posts with label be yourself. Show all posts
Showing posts with label be yourself. Show all posts

Wednesday, 20 January 2010

Pirate and the Penguin by Patricia Storms

This story is (as you might have guessed) about a pirate and a penguin. The pirate lives a life on the seas plundering, pillaging, and the like, but as it turns out, this pirate is getting a bit sick of the whole 'pirate thing' and begins wishing for a quieter life. In the antarctic there's this penguin, and just by looking at him you can tell he's out of place. He's wearing a sweater because he's cold all the time, and instead of sliding around on the ice like the other penguins, he dreams of adventure and travel. So the penguin and the pirate each decide to leave their homes to find a place where they can fulfill their desires and end up where the other left.

This story is a 'you can be anything you want' kind of book, as one could assume from reading the first couple of pages. The penguin wants what the pirate has and vice versa, and the story comes to a close with them switching places and being happy. It sounds like it would be a rehashing of a cheesy, over-played plot that's been so watered down by politically correct sentiments that it's lost any value whatsoever as a decent story... but surprisingly this is not the case. The story telling is fresh and fun and the illustrations are colourful and animated. It's a fun read with a nice little moral.

Wednesday, 30 December 2009

The Duchess Of Whimsy by Randall de Seve

This is a cute story about the Duchess of Whimsy and the Earl of Norm. As the name indicates, the Duchess of Whimsy is.. whimsical. She loves having fun, bright colours and is the life of the party. The earl of norm is 'normal' aka quiet/ introverted. The earl admires the duchess because of her spirit and tries to get her to notice him, but she thinks he's normal and doesn't like him. One day the duchess's chef gets a cold on the day she's having one of her parties and so all of the guests begin trying to help make dinner. All of her friends are like her so they want to make outlandish dishes but the earl just makes grilled cheese. The duchess is interested and takes a bite and loves it, and then she and the earl become friends. She sees how she's like him and he sees how he's like her. It's an opposites attract story. It's sweet even though it's been done before. the art is amazing. It's very colourful and fun.