Scan barcode
A review by kate66
Call of the Penguins by Hazel Prior
1.0
I was going to give up a third of the way through this but unfortunately I'm incapable of following good advice.
Where to start with this ... I'm not sure what it is except maybe a hastily flung together book pushed on by the success of the first one. Someone should have left it where it was.
I can't quite decide whether this is supposed to be a cutesy story or a diatribe on the state of the environment or a thinly disguised "how to" book.
The cutesy story is so obvious as to be dull. The diatribe on plastic pollution comes across as about 20 years too late and as for the "how to"? I was told how to turn on a computer, read and send an email, retrieve documents ... the list went on. I think I was even taught how to make a cup of tea at one stage but that might have been my fevered brain making things up.
A few real niggles drove me to eye rolling - firstly the constant use of "my dear" in front of virtually all Veronica's interminable sentences; next I was confused as to why a so-called nature lover had never heard of a bird called a booby and (certainly not last) but how would anyone struggle to make sense a boy being called Noah. Its in the bible for crying out loud.
The rest of the book seemed to be filled with whining - Patrick whined all the way through, Terry whined for half the time, Veronica lost her temper and whined, Mike seethe and whined. Enough!
Unfortunately all this was made worse by the awful narration. Worst book of the year!
Where to start with this ... I'm not sure what it is except maybe a hastily flung together book pushed on by the success of the first one. Someone should have left it where it was.
I can't quite decide whether this is supposed to be a cutesy story or a diatribe on the state of the environment or a thinly disguised "how to" book.
The cutesy story is so obvious as to be dull. The diatribe on plastic pollution comes across as about 20 years too late and as for the "how to"? I was told how to turn on a computer, read and send an email, retrieve documents ... the list went on. I think I was even taught how to make a cup of tea at one stage but that might have been my fevered brain making things up.
A few real niggles drove me to eye rolling - firstly the constant use of "my dear" in front of virtually all Veronica's interminable sentences; next I was confused as to why a so-called nature lover had never heard of a bird called a booby and (certainly not last) but how would anyone struggle to make sense a boy being called Noah. Its in the bible for crying out loud.
The rest of the book seemed to be filled with whining - Patrick whined all the way through, Terry whined for half the time, Veronica lost her temper and whined, Mike seethe and whined. Enough!
Unfortunately all this was made worse by the awful narration. Worst book of the year!