Tuesday, September 28, 2010

CSFF Tour - Venom and Song Day 2

Continuing the CSFF Tour of Venom and Song, the latest book by the dynamic duo of Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper, one would expect a review of the book, right?

If I had been able to rip it away from my 10 year old long enough to finish it, I would review it.

I guess I can't blame him - he had a Barnes and Noble gift card from his birthday, so really I'm trying to steal his book. But...he knew I had a deadline!

Instead, I am going to attempt a difficult task: interpret a 10 year old boy's thoughts of, "Cool! Awesome!" into a coherent review.

Remember that this is book two, following last year's Curse of the Spider King (see the tour here, there, and here too). We read that together as a family out loud over a couple months at bedtime. The timing worked out that we finished Curse right before Venom came out, so he launched right into it. Both boys enjoyed the action, characters, and suspense of the first book. (A favorite line was when an Elf was asked if she knew what the other Elves were up to due to telepathy. The answer: "A cell phone.")

All boy

As Nathan read through it, he proclaimed last weekend it was "his favorite book." That endorsement from a 10 year old should be enough. I hope so, because I tried to ask why it was his favorite. Turns out 10 year old boys aren't very good at explaining their feelings! He thought it was "cool" and "awesome."

I pressed him for more. He like the action, the characters, and the suspense (had to define "suspense" for him). His favorite character was the teenage elven lord Jett, due to his power of super-strength and his past history of being a star football player. He didn't care for Kat or Kiri Lee, two other lords, because they didn't have "cool powers" (telepathy and air-walking). I wondered if it was the fact they were girls, but he didn't include Autumn, who has super speed, so the power thing must be it.

I also asked him about a theme. As a 10 year old boy, his response was, "Uhhhhhhh." Finally, he said he saw the importance of teamwork from the book. I don't think I'd do any better as a 10 year old, so I'll take it!

So, if you want to know what a typical 10 year old boy thinks of Venom and Song, it is "cool."

Nuff said!

Oh, and for stuffy grown-up opinions ;) you can check out Becky Miller's blog, where she keeps a tab on all posts here.
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5 comments:

  1. Please tell Nathan from me, thank you for the cool review! It was awesome! He'll know just what I mean. ;-)

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  2. I loved the way you brought your kids into the review, Jason. Always great to get feedback from the intended audience. :)

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  3. Anonymous2:00 PM

    Great post, Jason. Or should I say, Cool! ;-) I really mean it—hearing a boy the book is written for give his opinion is priceless.

    Becky

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  4. lol sounds like my daughter when I ask her about books.. umm yeah.. good LOL.

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  5. Haha, I was ten... six years ago. :o What the memories.

    Nice review. Check out my blog (http://www.slygames.net) in which I did some posts for the CSFF Blog Tour as well. :D

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