When You’re Feeling Sick

By Coy Bowles (Illustrated by Andy Elkerton)

ISBN#9780399552861

Author Website: Coybowles.com

Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Daniele

Synopsis:

This laugh-out-loud picture book from Coy Bowles, guitarist for the Grammy Award winning Zac Brown Band, will have sick kids feeling better in no time!

Sneezing? Coughing? Taking a sick day? Don t worry, you’ll be feeling better soon thanks to this hilarious picture book from Coy Bowles, guitarist of the Grammy Award winning Zac Brown Band. Full of encouraging and super-silly rhyming advice on how to face sick days with courage and a positive attitude, When You’re Feeling Sick is just what the doctor ordered!  (Goodreads)

Review:

I liked the idea of When You’re Feeling Sick, after all every child is ill at some point and can use a pick-me-up while (s)he is down.  I thought this children’s book by Coy Bowles would be just the right prescription.  Unfortunately, the book falls short for this reader.

First of all, the good.  The illustrations are wonderfully bright and attention grabbing.  Many ethnicities and abilities are represented so most readers should be able to find someone to whom they can relate.  There are plenty of cooties and funny faces to make the littlest readers giggle.  The length of the story is also just right, short enough to keep the younger ones engaged yet long enough for the older readers, too.

And, the bad.  The prose is sometimes clunky, and the words do not flow well when you read it aloud.  Most of the verses rhyme, but not all of them.  And when they do not, it is jarring and awkward.  Overall, the story is silly, in a good way, but the humor falls flat and the message left me wanting more.  Marketed towards ages 3 -7, perhaps the youngest “readers” will appreciate When You’re Feeling Sick the most.