Cool interactive flaps, nice story, lots of repetition. Pretty good self-esteem pick. ( )

This book is about a little boy about to do a talent show but after seeing his classmates do their talent he is scared. he eventually does it but two boys boo in the back. He pays them no attention though and feels proud of himself

I thought this was an okay book. The big picture of the book is to have the courage to face one's fears. One reason I liked this book was the writing is engaging and different than anything I've ever read. The book is written in a cumulative story structure so every page adds a line to the story. I thought this was a bit annoying and I didn't want to read it because it was the reception of what was on the page before, but it could be helpful for young readers just starting. A second reason I liked the book is that the characters are well developed and believable. When the author was introducing the main character she said, "And I wasn't a bit scared because I had practiced a billion times, plus I was wearing my lucky blue boots and my pants with cool pockets." Not only is the description of the character believable, but children around his age could relate to having special or lucky clothing or objects. Finally the third reason I liked the book was because of the illustrations and pop up pictures. The illustrations enhance the story, and fit the written text. For example, when the character is talking about his pants with the cool pockets the reader can flip open his pockets and see he has gum, a coin, a paper clip and other junk in his pocket. The pop up pictures enhance the reading of the text. ( )

“And Two Boys Booed” is a story about a boy who sings for a talent show which takes place in his elementary school classroom. When I finished this book, I was utterly confused as to what I was supposed to take away from reading it. On many pages, the same words are printed as the previous ones, with one more new sentence. I found reading this style to be tedious and boring. At one point, the author seems to write as though the boy is confused (he was about to sing but his mind trailed off to some odd place), and I was thoroughly confused reading it. “I started walking my poem”, “I mean, I started dancing my hands”, “I mean, I started reading my toes”. These were the sentences I had to suffer through. At the end of his song, most of the class applauded while two bows booed. And that was it. The end. I inspected the seams of the book to make sure that no pages were torn out because it felt like such a random way to end a story. Some redeemable qualities are the flip pages that show movement, as they are creative but not necessary. Also, the children in the classroom make facial and body expressions that are realistic, such as some laughing, some being distracted, and a few with bored and anxious faces. However, there was no context as to why a couple children had frowns, and honestly, those nameless, flat characters were the most intriguing part of the story. Maybe what the author is trying to say is that no matter how talented you are, not everyone will like what you do, but even that is questionable to me.

A cummulative tale about a boy who is confident going into the talent show, but suffers growing anxiety as his turn approaches. The show must go on and he soldiers on despite a shaky start. A nice way to show children that some fears can turn out all right in the end. I found the lift-the-flaps an odd addition, though. ( )