Sunday, October 5, 2008

Book Review:The Dragonfly Secret

Feather Rock Books has just released its children's book:

The Dragonfly Secret: A Story of Boundless Love written by Clea Adams and John Adams. Beautifully illustrated, this hardcover book contains vibrant illustrations by award-winning artist Barbara L. Gibson.

*Description: Love and hope transcend all boundaries when a boy and a dragonfly meet. An impossible encounter? Lea journeys through a beautiful garden to discover the boy’s secret. As she follows his clues, Lea meets people who need her help. And at the end, the unexpected secret is revealed.

Discover the power of boundless love in this heartfelt story of friendship, family, and remembrance. Beautifully illustrated, The Dragonfly Secret gently encourages children and adults to explore life’s infinite possibilities. Because of it, readers may look at nature in an entirely new light.


The Dragonfly Secret is a heartwarming story for family members who have lost a loved one.

*From Feather Rock Books

The authors sent me this beautifully illustrated book that tells a wonderful story of a boy and a dragonfly. They develop a friendship as they play together and explore nature. The boy gives the dragonfly instructions to follow and the dragonfly sets off on a journey of discovery that allows the reader to follow along. An unexpected secret is revealed to the dragonfly and the reader in the end about life and death.

I read this book recently with my 9 year old son. He is thrilled when he can read and "review" a book along with me. We both loved the illustrations as they are richly colored, warm and inviting. My son enjoyed reading the story together with me and liked the boy as a main character along with the dragonfly. He told me that his favorite parts were the illustrations. He shared with me that he feels he is a bit "old" for picture books as he is almost 10. He did say that he thinks that this book would be good for children in Kindergarten through 2nd grade. The book is classified as being geared towards ages 8 through Adult although that may be the reader level. My son didn't quite "get" the meaning of the story as I learned as we discussed it. I do feel that this is a book that could be very comforting to a child that is dealing with a life and death situation or loss of a family member. I would suggest that a parent or adult read along with a child 10 or under to help them process the meaning of the book.

This is a companion book to the authors first book The Dragonfly Door which is a 2008 Winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award. This looks like another beautifully illustrated story with a similar theme. It may be helpful to read this story first to lay down the foundation of the story and help children process the meaning of the books which relate to issues of life and death.

4 comments:

  1. Bonnie, what a great review by both you and your son. How sweet that he read and reviewed a book with you. It certainly sounds like a good book to share with a child. I love the cover-I bet the illustrations were wonderful if the cover is any indication-it's gorgeous.

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  2. You've been tagged!

    http://bellafoxx.blogspot.com/2008/10/power-of-four-meme.html

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  3. I just read this to my kids last night. My nine year old daughter didn't get it either. I reviewed it today:

    http://bookingmama.blogspot.com/2008/10/review-dragonfly-secret.html

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  4. I received this book as well. My daughter is 8, and I think she was more interested in the pictures. She loves art. She didn't get it either, but once I explained it to her, she said it made sense. I think this book would be good for a child dealing with grief; I'm sure they'd get it.

    --Anna
    http://diaryofaneccentric.blogspot.com

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