Strange storybook for children (The Way Back Home - Oliver Jeffers)

Member Name: greysanatomyfan

Product:	The Way Back Home - Oliver Jeffers
Date:	07/09/09 (11 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautifully illustrated, nice moral to story

Disadvantages: Storyline is downright silly

We bought this book for my son for Christmas and started reading it to him from about 18 months old. At the time we belonged to a book club and bought this book as we had read good reviews of another book by Oliver Jeffers, How to Catch a Star.

The storyline really doesn't make much sense. I know it's a children's book, but the story really is ridiculous. A little boy gets stranded on the moon when his plane runs out of petrol. He was stuck on the moon and didn't know what to do. He then meets a Martian stuck on the moon with a broken engine and they decide to help each other. Then the boy jumps down to Earth into the sea and swims home to get the things they need to fix his plane and the martian's spaceship! This makes no sense anyway, but what I can't get my head around is the fact the boy could have done this before meeting the Martian and then he wouldn't have been stranded. Granted, he would have had to leave his plane behind but at least he would have been back home. In the end the Martian pulls him back up to the moon with a rope, they fix each others vehicles and both go back home.

I suppose the book has a nice moral to it, how you can make new friends and help each other out of a jam by working together. For me though, the story is too far-fetched, even for a children's book.

The book is illustrated beautifully, although for some reason my son, who's now 2 seems to prefer his other books. The writing in it is quite large and very clear which will be helpful when my son starts learning to read.

I think this book would be suitable from 18 months - 5 years as a guide. I have the hardback version, which costs £8.99 on Amazon. The paperback version is just £4.49.

Overall I cannot recommend this book as the story is silly and my son who loves books doesn't seem particularly taken with it. Maybe he'll appeciate it more when he's a little older.

Summary: I'm not a big fan of this book. Maybe I don't have enough imagination?!