#FridayFiveChallenge ~ Buy or Pass? Stick Man by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

Rosie Amber’s Friday Five Challenge, involves taking only five minutes to choose a book cover which appeals instantly. So take a few minutes, grab yourself a coffee…..and have a browse.

In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions from small postage stamp size book covers (Thumb-nails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they really spend making that buying decision?

AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?

My Friday Five Challenge is this….. IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES….

1) Go to any online book supplier,

2) Randomly choose a category,

3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,

4) Read the book Bio/ Description for this book, and any other details.

5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,

6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?

Still running around like a headless chicken, getting ready for Christmas, so I went for an easy option to choose a book this week under the deals section. This cover caught my eye…

Although this children’s book was published in 2009, it’s new to me. The blurb reads..

Stick Man lives in the family tree. With his Stick Lady Love and their stick children three. But it’s dangerous being a Stick Man. A dog wants to play with him, a swan builds her nest with him. He even ends up on a fire! Will he ever get back to the family tree? 

The cover is lovely shows exactly what the book is about, with a lot to spark a child’s interest. Lots of little animals and the stick man running. What is he running from, or to? It’s naturally a short book with 32 pages and some wonderful illustrations. The paperback is £3.39 new and from £2.47/$6.98 from other sellers.

There are 593 reviews with 518 reviewers rating it 5* and 48 rating it 4*.  One of the 3* reviewers had this to say As ardent Donaldson/Scheffler fans (we have them all), this one has made something stick in my craw. The storyline, the well-loved rhyming style and of course, the fantastic Scheffler artwork cannot be faulted. I was immediately struck however, by the ‘happy ending’ which concludes at Xmas time. Considering that Donaldson’s readership is British children, I feel that she may not have taken into account the multi ethnical traditions of her readers and that the significance of ‘getting home for Xmas’ might be lost to a large group of children. 

The reviews show the vast majority loved the book, were impressed with the artwork and the catchy, repetitive rhyming of the narrative which would, I imagine, go down well and be something most children would enjoy joining in with. It seems the criticism levelled at the author by this 3* reviewer for giving the story a happy Christmas ending, could well have been lost to a larger group of children had she given the book a different ending.  But..each to their own opinion, of course.

Just to even things out, a 5* review..Absolutely love this book, probably more than my children. An absolute must for 2 years plus I would say. Even though I have to read it every night with at least two other bed time books from the same author, namely Tiddler & Room on a Broom, I think it is brilliant.
Wish these books had been around when I was little. It has really helped with language development for my 3 yr old, and the illustrations are beautiful. Fantastic book, highly recommended.

So would I BUY or PASS? It’s a BUY. I think it would make a lovely children’s book and will be adding it to my grandson’s ‘library’

Buy links ~ Amazon UK Amazon US

If you’d like to enter next week’s challenge, and the more the merrier, check out Rosie’s blog to read about the Friday Five Challenge.

More Friday Five Challenge Choices

Shelley went for a fun story about the diary of a single wedding planner.