And Two Boys Booed

Reviewed by: Dorothy Hall-Riddle - N/A, Cumberland, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: May 12, 2015

Review

A young boy prepares for his class talent show. He practices his song over and over and is ready to perform in front of his classmates. When the big day arrives, he feels ready, but as his turn gets closer and closer, his confidence wanes until, as he stands to go, he becomes flustered and can't do it. After several failed attempts, he finally belts out his song and receives two boos from boys who were fooling around the whole time. This really doesn't bother him because everyone else in the class is standing up applauding. His silly antics are shown through fun flaps throughout the book. Sometimes the flaps reveal surprises and sometimes funny things. This would make for a great read-aloud and serve as a good lesson for overcoming stage fright, being confident in the face of adversity, believing in ones' self, and supporting classmates who struggle. Young readers would also enjoy looking at this on their own, taking in the simple story by themselves. The uncluttered illustrations show the boy and his classmates, without a lot of extraneous details, allowing the focus to remain on the boy and his troubles.

Overall Book Score: very good