The Dreadful Fluff

Topics
- Write a book review
- Young people's book awards

I have never written a book review in my life. Although as a Children’s and Youth Librarian, I have recommend and given my personal opinions on books, countless times.

The first problem that I encountered in this activity was to find a book to review. A children’s book, picture book, young adult book? To narrow the selection of books, I went to the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s (CBCA) website.

The Children's Book Council of Australia is a volunteer run, not for profit, organisation that was established in 1945 and is comprised of branches of individual members who are passionate about children's and young adult literature. (CBCA, 2013)

The CBCA is also the organisation behind Book Week and every year publishers and authors submit their books to the CBCA in hope of winning an award and gaining recognition in the publishing industry and in libraries and schools. Every year Book Week is significant event in the library where I work and it is an excellent opportunity to discover new books that may be overlooked otherwise and to promote books and reading.

After browsing the CBCA website, I printed out the Shortlisted books and Notables for 2013. I browsed the categories and decided that I would review a children’s picture book. At my local library I found what I could on the shelves and then put requests in for the rest.

Once I had a pile of books, the second problem was what criteria was I going to review the books against? Would I simply choose a book that appealed to me or should I use more formal criteria, such as use by the judges in the CBCA that are listed here.

To help my decision, I went and researched how to write a book review. The best resources I found were:

• Tips for writing book reviews by Luisa Plaja
• How to Write a Book Review by Rebecca Graf
• The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing by Mayra Calvani and Anne K. Edwards

In the end, I decided my review would be a personal critique of the book that reflected my thoughts and opinions. The book I would chose is the book that would stick in my mind the most, for whatever reason, such as drawings or story, if it was the one that appealed or repelled me the most.

After reading all the books in the picture book category, the book that stood out for me the most was The Dreadful Fluff by Aaron Blabey.

I chose this book because it made me giggle… a lot.

My review:

The Dreadful Fluff is about a girl Serenity Strainer, who was perfect. Until the day the she discovered some belly button fluff. This was no ordinary belly button fluff… it was evil, dreadful fluff. As the fluff grew it only became more evil and dreadful. How will Serenity Strainer defeat her dreadful fluff? I am not going to say, you have to read the book. This is a richly funny story, which is beautifully illustrated. When reading the story aloud, it flowed off the tongue. It is also a story you can read in a very dramatic fashion to engage an audience. The story is cute, with all the gross things that appeal to little kids, particularly boys and parents alike.

For more information on the author and his books go to his website here.

Check out the Dreadful Fluff book review trailer

References

Blabey, A. (2012). The Dreadful Fluff. Camberwell: Penguin Group.

Blabey, A. (2013). aaronblabey.com. Retrieved from http://www.aaronblabey.com/index.html

Calvani, M., & Edwards, A. K. (2008). The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing. Kingsport: Twilight Times Books.

Children’s Book Council of Australia. (2013). Retrieved from http://cbca.org.au/

Children’s Book Council of Australia. (2013). Awards titles and criteria. Retrieved from http://cbca.org.au/userfiles/file/Downloads/Nat%20Site/2013/awards/awards%20criteria.pdf

Graf, R. (2013). How to Write a Book Review. Amazon Digital Services: Silver Tongue Press.

PenguinKidsTV (2013). The Dreadful Fluff book trailer - Aaron Blabey. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KF9RrepLNp8

Plaja, L. (2013). Tips for writing book reviews. In Booktrust. Retrieved from http://www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/teenagers/writing-tips/tips-for-writing-book-reviews/