Things I Liked:
This was a fun, quick story with lovely illustrations and beautiful writing. I love the mythology elements and also Odd, who is a character that you have to root for and like, despite the extremely short narrative. The descriptive language is just so wonderful, and at the same time very simple. I think very young kids would be able to read and enjoy the story.
Things I Didn't Like:
Some parts seemed a little too, well, odd. I think that is very much Gaiman's style of writing, however. Also, it didn't seem like Odd progressed much except in terms of his physical appearance. It didn't have much meat to it, I guess.
Read-alikes:
Kinda like The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
A little bit like Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: none
mrg-factor: none
v-factor: none
Overall rating: ****
Do you like quirky books or do you tend to think they're too weird?
If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage
Hm, I've never read anything by Neil Gaiman, but after I saw the movie Stardust a few years ago I feel like I should.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read this one, but I love quirky books. Not all the time or anything, but I LOVE
ReplyDeletethe Alcatraz series by Brandon Sanderson
The Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman
The Stinky Cheese Man
Pumpkinhead by Eric Rohmann
to name a few. (Three of those are pictures books!)
Dana, everyone should have at least one Gaiman experience. The Graveyard Book is a good one too.
ReplyDeleteJulie, I loved two of the four you listed (and hadn't heard of the others), so I guess I love plenty of quirky books too.
Which two??
ReplyDeleteI love the Graveyard Book and I loved neverwhere as well, but was only so-so about American Gods. It is a good enough book but maybe I expected more wow factor since there's been so much hype about it.
ReplyDeleteJulie, I loved the Alcatraz books and the Stinky Cheese Man, but haven't even heard of the other two :)
ReplyDeleteAndie, I haven't picked up American Gods. The only other Gaiman I've read (besides this and Graveyard Book) is Coraline. I haven't read any of his adults books.