Thursday 25 February 2016

Review on The Land Without Color



When Alvin gets lost in a strange land, he immediately knows that something isn't right. The land is a dull and colorless place, and there doesn't seem to be anyone around to tell him what's going on or where he is. After he meets a friendly squirrel, Alvin finds out that the once colorful and vibrant land has has it's color stolen by the goblins, and he just help to restore the color to the land. However Alvin soon finds out that everything he has learnt about the land in a lie. With the help of his new friends, Alvin must rescue the princesses and bring the color back once and for all.

The cover of this book was really colourful and eye catching so I did the classic judging a book by it's cover and decided to read it! The book centres around a young boy named Alvin, who on his birthday finds himself in a colourless land. I really loved the silliness and impossibility of this book, such as the talking animals and Alvin floating from blowing a bubble from bubble gum. I also loved that the book started with a map as you always know that the characters are going to be going on an epic adventure.

The characters were interesting and unique, and I loved that we weren't overburdened with too many characters. The book mainly centred around Alvin and his two animal friends, Permy the Squirrel and Ronaldo the mouse. As the book was short I felt as if this was a good idea, as it's always better to have fewer characters to give personalities to rather than having a lot of characters who we know nothing about. However I did feel as if some of the chapters could have been a little longer, as I felt that Alvin moving from place to place was slightly rushed and that the book could have been made a little longer to explore each area more thoroughly. Although the majority of the places are beautifully described, I felt that some of the characters themselves could have used a little more description. As the book is illustrated I felt as if with certain descriptions the author just left it to the illustrator to give a visual idea of what certain characters and buildings looked like. However I did enjoy the illustrations and felt that they were a good idea for a childrens book, as looking at pages full of text can be a little daunting for younger readers and could possibly put them off reading for personal enjoyment.

I loved some of the important themes in the book, such as not judging someone from what you hear about them. I loved that Alvin got to meet the goblins for himself and found out that everything he knew about them had been a lie, as he learnt that the citizens of the kingdom of color were misinformed, and that it is better to find something out for yourself rather than taking someotnes word for it. I also loved the message of how important it is to eat vegetables to keep your body healthy and to avoid junk food. It explained in a unique way how vegetables give you a slow release of energy whereas sugary foods give you a quick burst before making you feel tired and unmotivated. As children are often opposed to eating vegetables, I felt that showing this through the fantasy world was cleverly done.

Although I did love the silliness and impossibility of the book, I did find that certain things were a little too much. For example, throughout the book I thought that the lost princesses were teenagers, so I was shocked to find out that they were young children. As the King seemed to love his daughters, I didn't understand why instead of living with him, they lived alone in there own castles on opposite ends of the land. Although they had magical powers and seemed to be mature for their ages, I didn't understand why six year olds were living by themselves.

I loved the ending of the book as it was unique compared to other children's fantasy books such as The Chronicles of Narnia. Overall I thought it was a fun read and I would definitely love to read more of the books in this series!

I recommend this book to children who love fairy tales and adventures! Fans of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Land of Stories will definitely love this book.

The Land Without Color is now available to purchase!






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