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A review by ellieanor
Wed Wabbit by Lissa Evans
1.0
2018 CARNEGIE LONGLIST BOOK 10/20
Let's face it, I never thought I would love this book. However, I did not expect to be so intensely irritated by a book that I wanted to throw it against a wall and start pounding my head on the ground. Literally the moment I finished this I took big gulps of relieved breaths because I was so glad to get out. That irritation has literally masked my whole opinion of this book and I could literally not rate it higher, even if I wanted to.
Looking past the horrible cover (they need to change that, it isn't very appealing), this book is about a girl called Fidge who has an annoying younger sister who reads this book called the Land of the Wimbley Woos. She also has lots of toys, inclduing a purple elephant and a "wed wabbit". When the younger sister is involved in a car accident, Fidge has to go and stay with her horrible cousin, Graham, and ends up getting stuck in a world which is a weird combination of her sister's favourite book, her cuddley toys, with Wed Wabbit as an evil dictator. In this world, there are colourful dustbin shaped creatures called wimbleys and - and I just can't do it anymore. As you have probably noticed, this book is complete and utter nonsense. I hated it. The world was babyish and so silly. But Eleanor, you say, this is a children's book. It's supposed to be like that. Ah no, no, no, no, no, no, here is my problem. It was written well enough for older kids BUT I feel like older kids would have lost patience with this just like me, and younger children would not be able to read it. I feel like this is one of those books which is aimed at critics who will then praise it for children. I think some authors need to think about what audience they are aiming at, and when writing children's books, we need to think about what children will really enjoy.
I cannot rate this any higher, for reasons that you have read already, but there were SOME things that I would have liked about it had it not been set in the most annoying world ever. I liked some of the things Ella said, they were funny but positive, and I kind of liked how Graham became nicer. But it was just against such a nonsense and annoying background that all the good things just sort of...paled. Which is sad, because there were some elements buried in here that I think people would enjoy.
So, despite the good reviews, this was a no from me. I just don't like to read about creatures that can't pronounce their w and I cannot deal with talking dustbins. This didn't really have an audience who would fully appreciate it either - the writing style was too complex for really young children who would like the genre, I think. And I just don't know why anyone would want to read about something this intensely annoying.
Let's face it, I never thought I would love this book. However, I did not expect to be so intensely irritated by a book that I wanted to throw it against a wall and start pounding my head on the ground. Literally the moment I finished this I took big gulps of relieved breaths because I was so glad to get out. That irritation has literally masked my whole opinion of this book and I could literally not rate it higher, even if I wanted to.
Looking past the horrible cover (they need to change that, it isn't very appealing), this book is about a girl called Fidge who has an annoying younger sister who reads this book called the Land of the Wimbley Woos. She also has lots of toys, inclduing a purple elephant and a "wed wabbit". When the younger sister is involved in a car accident, Fidge has to go and stay with her horrible cousin, Graham, and ends up getting stuck in a world which is a weird combination of her sister's favourite book, her cuddley toys, with Wed Wabbit as an evil dictator. In this world, there are colourful dustbin shaped creatures called wimbleys and - and I just can't do it anymore. As you have probably noticed, this book is complete and utter nonsense. I hated it. The world was babyish and so silly. But Eleanor, you say, this is a children's book. It's supposed to be like that. Ah no, no, no, no, no, no, here is my problem. It was written well enough for older kids BUT I feel like older kids would have lost patience with this just like me, and younger children would not be able to read it. I feel like this is one of those books which is aimed at critics who will then praise it for children. I think some authors need to think about what audience they are aiming at, and when writing children's books, we need to think about what children will really enjoy.
I cannot rate this any higher, for reasons that you have read already, but there were SOME things that I would have liked about it had it not been set in the most annoying world ever. I liked some of the things Ella said, they were funny but positive, and I kind of liked how Graham became nicer. But it was just against such a nonsense and annoying background that all the good things just sort of...paled. Which is sad, because there were some elements buried in here that I think people would enjoy.
So, despite the good reviews, this was a no from me. I just don't like to read about creatures that can't pronounce their w and I cannot deal with talking dustbins. This didn't really have an audience who would fully appreciate it either - the writing style was too complex for really young children who would like the genre, I think. And I just don't know why anyone would want to read about something this intensely annoying.