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Book reviews are so easy even a child could do it

Fresh reviewer on the literati scene and CNN.com special reporter Andrew Oglesby writes a top-notch book review, despite the fact that the man is a mere six years old.

CNN.com staffer Christy Oglesby’s kid was called in to review a handful of books for young readers because “children’s books don’t always engage the audience they’re intended for,” and they wanted to get a real-life child’s take on ’em. In his first set of reviews, Oglesby was “excited by pill bugs and frightened squirrels, but not quite as entertained by poems about the planet.” In his second set, he is tough but fair.

He enjoyed the historical non-fiction tome John, Paul, George & Ben‘s “real funny part … about the noisy one, Paul [Revere], how he was shouting so loud about the pretty big underwear.” He also enjoyed learning about John Hancock: “the funny thing about him was how he writes so big. When he was writing on the chalkboard his name almost filled up all the space, and when he was a grownup he just kept on writing that way.”

But in the end, Oglesby comes down hard on poor old John, Paul, George & Ben, saying, “This book was so goofy. The author made lots of stuff up. The honest one, who was George [Washington], why would he cut down every single tree in the apple orchard? Chop. Chop. Chop. No one could cut down that many trees in that much time. And when someone has been in too much noise, they don’t get wobbly eyes like Paul.”

Related links:
Check out all of Andrew Oglesby’s reviews at CNN.com

By

July 5th, 2006

12:00 am

Category: Book news

Tagged with: children's books