Wednesday, February 13, 2013

A 5-Star Book You’ll Love Reading to a Child – “Cody the Coyote”

 
 

Sandy Wardman’s, “Cody the Coyote”, is the Ideal Story to Read to a Young Child! 5-Star Fun!
 
8 ½” x 11” -- Full color
Illustrated by Jeff West
Vesuvius Press, 2012
TauPublishing.com
$6.95
 
 
I loved reading this book for the story, the illustrations and the ease of reading it out loud. “Cody theCoyote” has the five features I look for most when buying a book which is designed to be read to young children.  
 
The Five Essential Things I Look For When Buying a Book to be Read to Young Children:
 
1) It has to be written well enough to hold my interest. "Cody the Coyote" is that well written. I wanted to know how the story was going to end just as much as any child.
 
2) I want the illustrations to have facial expressions that give the characters personality. "Cody the Coyote" has these and they are as well drawn as any I’ve ever seen. You can almost 'read' the backstories into the characters from their expressions alone. Marvelous.
 
3) the text has to be easily understandable by the child. This is very hard to do. I’ve read many children’s books where adult concepts slipped in. This book is ideal for children in both concepts and expression. The type is centered on the page which makes you want to read it as if it were poetry. The words just flow with ease when reading it out loud.
 
4) if characters are mentioned in the copy, then I want those same characters to be illustrated in the picture – if pictures are central to the value of the book. In this book every illustration was perfect. It's fun to ask the child to find the characters mentioned in the story within the current illustration.
 
5) I like the story to teach a moral lesson. It does not have to be a religious message. "Cody the Coyote" is like a Native American folktale of the coyote variety of which there are many. However in this book, the coyote is not the evil trickster as he is usually portrayed in folklore. This book has an interesting twist. Adults will enjoy the writing along with the children.
 

A book that’s fun to read.
 
All and all, “Cody theCoyote” is a 5-Star book from the point of view of the adult reader and also from the point of view of the young child listener. The illustrations are very much like Disney creations. Many are of full page size. So you can read the text and ask the child to point out the different animals as mentioned in the story that you have just read. This makes reading the story more fun for both parties.
 
I don’t know if you can get this book in stories. Frankly, I wanted it to study the illustrations and was amazed by how well the text was written. (I could tell from the cover art that the illustrations were excellent and I wanted to see more of them.)
 
There are now two other books in the series so if you like "Cody the Coyote", there are two more waiting to be enjoyed!
 
Sandy Wardman’s, “Cody the Coyote”, is the Ideal Story to Read to a Young Child!
5-Star Fun!
 

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