When you realise that you can legally drive in 4 months you will suddenly feel a pine for your childhood. At this point, I've found, you should agree to read and review a children's book.
I was a crazily enthusiastic reader as a child. I mean, tell me about a book published before 2008 and I've probably read it. I'm not even joking. As a result I feel like I know a lot about the genre and this review is not coming from the 16 year old girl taking public exams but from my 8 year old self.
The Extincts is about a boy who goes to work on a farm that's filled with dangerous magical and extinct animals. The auther threw in a beginning, middle and an end, an evil stepmother and a grumpy teacher.
The book was enjoyable. I found it was so clearly marketed at 7-9 year old boys that it took away from the actual book. You know the type of boy, he'll love those dangerous animal programs that the BBC makes. It was full of clichées: girls are stupid and stepmothers are evil. It was well written, don't get me wrong, but it's carnivorous attitude got in the way.
Also the "bad-guy" reflects 101 Dalmatians. There's the big house on the hill, the evil woman who is extraverted and drives a fast car (Cruella) and two henchmen: a skinny, tall mastermind and the short one. Oh and here's the kicker: she kills animals for aesthetic purposes.
There is a very clear message going through the book: "let's show boys how exciting we can make the contents of the natural history museum". It was so educational that it might have well been a cleverly disguised textbook.
Overall, I enjoyed the book but didn't love the obvious marketing strategy. I think that books should be written as reflections of an author and their creativity, not their selling strategy. I believe boys should read more but not in a way that girls are compromised. Other than that, it was good. Books need to stand out and this one didn't.
It just didn't shine.
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