ANNA BANANA AND THE CHOCOLATE EXPLOSION BY ALEXIS DORMAL, DOMINIQUE ROQUES: BOOK REVIEW

Omar

graphic-novel

5-star

Anna Banana and the Chocolate Explosion

Alexis Dormal, Dominique Roques

ISBN : 9781626720206

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Una

 

anna-banana-and-the-chocolate-explosionSynopsis

Anna Banana is at it again!  The lovable tyrant from Sleep Tight, Anna Banana! is up to no good, and so are all of her beloved stuffed animals. In this adorable sequel to the 2014 picture book, Anna Banana and her stuffed pals set out to make a chocolate cake…and end up making a big, big, big mess. With all the charm and whimsy that won reader’s hearts in the first book of the series, Anna Banana and the Chocolate Explosion will give Anna Banana’s fans more of what they love…and win over new readers.

Review

This is a delightful and well written children’s book, done in a comic format that should appeal to young readers and older readers alike. It would be great for story time, with the teacher telling the story. The story is simple to read and the use of one word actions adds creativity to the story. Most children love to see messes, especially if they haven’t created them, and the mess created in the story will bring smiles galore.

The authors have done a great job giving the story a learning experience for the young reader. I loved the way Anna gets everyone into action to bake however finds out the hard way that some members either don’t want to participate in the group or don’t follow instructions well. Yelling at the members Anna finds out, without explaining fully what she really wants done, brings disastrous results. Cheating is also explored and the “cheater” learns that when you are caught you have to get forgiveness to get back into the action. All turns out well in the end and the story uses language that children will understand and want to read. The characters are depicted wonderfully and should delight both sexes. For the reluctant reader this format, I think, would encourage reading, as it doesn’t have a lot of words on each page and the comic isn’t overly long.

The comic is easy to read and should catch the imagination of any 3-7 year old reader. I hope there are many more books in this series.