The Central Park Tales (Book) Review
We liked?
Not so much?
Author and illustrator Marcus Meesters brings readers a volume filled with tales of a group of animals that live in Central Park. The animals all live and interact within the park, and the book follows them in their day-to-day lives, with events big and small making up a good sized volume of stories for kids […]
Author and illustrator Marcus Meesters brings readers a volume filled with tales of a group of animals that live in Central Park. The animals all live and interact within the park, and the book follows them in their day-to-day lives, with events big and small making up a good sized volume of stories for kids and parents to enjoy together. The flow of the book sort of reminds me of stories like Little Bear, where there isn’t so much of a focus on one story with a clear cut beginning and end. Instead, each story gives readers a larger view of the community of animals as they go about their daily lives.
The animals featured in the story have more descriptive than creative names, such as Striped Tail Raccoon, Mother Mouse, and so forth, and each has their own distinctive personalities. The raccoon is rather crotchety, and none to fond of his noisy neighbors, the mouse family. The younger dog brothers are mischievous, and the little Mousekin is sweet and kind. They all get into all sorts of adventures, such as birthday parties where the sweets disappear, and tooth fairy encounters with unusual results. There isn’t much in the way of clear cut morals to the stories, but the animals do learn some lessons along the way. Though it’s a book that is heavy on text, there are colorful illustrations spread throughout the book that give vision to the animals featured in the stories.
The Central Park Tales is a series of stories in the vein of such classics as Little Bear. Though the animals participate in a series of adventures, the focus is more on the community of animals as a whole than any climactic stories. Though it is rather long for young readers, those of around first grade and older should be able to enjoy it on their own (and younger readers may be happy with it spread across a few bedtimes). The illustrations are colorful and well done, and help to break up the text in a book that will be long for new readers.