Aerorace 1869
Jay Sopp
Reviewed by Donna Morse
Quite a busy read with the underlying theme of good vs. evil. Naturally
good wins in the end. The story unfolds with a fast moving fly around
the world in a flying machine equipped with a Teletype to send and
receive coded messages. The Society starts the race providing a clue to
the first secret waypoint. the goal is to collect decorated eggs
located in bizarre places around the world.
The race is one and the reader travels along with lots of re-reading,
as you need to redirect often with thoughts of, 'What the heck are they
talking about!'
the characters are cute and even though they are modeled after species
from the animal kingdom, the similarities stop there. Although most
children are familiar with finger-pooling video games and clicking
window to window on the Internet, this book takes the reader to too
many places in too short a time with a vocabulary that would leave most
children in the dust. Most youngsters would definitely require an adult
partner and a dictionary. There are also lots of hidden analogies and
historical information that makes the book just too busy. Another
shortfall would be the pictures placed randomly inside the print which
fledgling readers would find difficult to make connection, as they
would with a smooth flow of print.
I think less would have been more with this particular story. The
redeeming qualities of the story would be the sequential story line.