Amanda Lorenzo

Beatrice is a bunny headed to market who falls off the truck and Blossom is a little lost squirrel. They also become part of the Runt Farm family and learn to be stronger individuals and better friends.

The language in these books is modern but also age-appropriate. The animals speak in ways that children might speak -- sometimes offending where no offense is meant, sometimes speaking their minds when it would have been better to keep something to themselves. These books have realistic interactions that will feel familiar to kids. But again, the reactions by other characters to these words should teach children that it's important to consider the words we decide to use when speaking to others.

http://webereading.com/2009/12/home-with-room-for-everyone.html… (mehr)

The first book in the series is Runt Farm: Under New Management, illustrated by Mark Evan Walker. It begins with Kitten, a youngster left behind when the Brunt family leaves their farm. He decides to stay in the barn and make it a comfortable home. The first night turns out to be a bit scary though and he is more than happy when an egg hatches the next morning and out comes The Peep, a duck that peeps rather than quacks. They have adventures together in the local pond until two super-intelligent mice, escaped from a local animal research facility, join them and really bring the group together. Cletus and Tooth are inventors, cooks, doctors and so much more. They make the barn a true home and the group a true family.

These are short chapter books with a good amount of illustration which makes them appealing as bedtime stories but also great for young readers. There are some longer words used that are defined in the back of each book -- both enabling kids to expand their vocabularies and to learn to look things up for themselves. I thought the subject matter was appropriate for most children although younger children may need an explanation about why some behaviors are not good choices. In the book the choices have consequences but it might not be clear why they were not the right thing to do.

http://webereading.com/2009/12/home-with-room-for-everyone.html… (mehr)

When a letter arrives at Runt Fram from Tooth's cousin, Clovis, the family decides to break Clovis out of her tiny cell at a research facility. They seem to succeed until a mysterious package arrives at Runt Farm and put the whole family in hot water. Will the scientists from the research facility find Tooth and his family or will they remain free?

A cute, animal adventure story that young readers will enjoy. The character are memorable, the plot keeps moving, and the illustrations well done and do a good job of complementing the story. Readers who like adventure stories, animal books, and fantasy fiction will enjoy reading this book.… (mehr)

I read this book with my daughter who is five years old. I did note that this book is for an older audience, but I wanted my daughter’s opinion on the book. She loved the drawings throughout the book. We had a hard time reading only one chapter a night, because we found it hard to pick up where we left off in the story. We haven’t read the two previous books in the series so it was hard to explain NAARF, and the narrative from previous books.

Overall, I loved the fact that the focus was on diverse families and it was a great idea for children’s literature for the right age group.

However, I didn’t like the fact that this storyline reminded me of The Secret of Nimph. The stories relate too much, even though one is a movie and the other is a series of books.… (mehr)