Welcome back to the opinion portion of this Book Tour stop for Secrets of the Wild. Don’t miss your chance to enter the giveaway!
Secrets of the Wild
by Olivia Kent, Srimalie Bassani (Illustrator)
DETAILS:
Publisher: Mascot Books
Publication Date: March 2, 2021
Format: PDF
Length: 38
Read Date: June 20, 2023
What’s Secrets of the Wild About?
This is an introduction to the Secret Lives of Wild Animals—the parties, the jobs, games, antics, and more that they get up to when humans aren’t around to interfere.
Some Drawbacks
A lot of the vocabulary seems advanced for the target audience—this is not necessarily bad, in fact, it’s laudable. But maybe there are too many of those advanced words in a short space. That’s a tough call really, but it’s something to chew on. If you are going to use a loftier vocabulary (particularly this audience), you’d better make sure you did so correctly—and I’m unconvinced that’s the case here.
The last two pages bring up the idea of humans exploiting animals—for entertainment or industrial use. This is a pretty heavy thing to introduce in the last five sentences, but it’s a defensible notion, but it would probably be better served if given more space. I do wonder what’s different about some of the exploitation the humans are apt to engage in and what the animals themselves were doing in the Weasel Rodeo.
The pronoun use in the last sentence is pretty confusing and could’ve been made easier for the target audience.
Let’s Talk about the Art for a Minute
Bassani’s art is fantastic. It’s playful, it’s vibrant, it’s engaging—she takes the whimsy and imagination of the premise, embraces it, and then kicks it up a notch.
These illustrations are full—and I do mean full—of characters, action, and details. It’s going to take even the most detail-oriented child a long time to find all there is to find in these drawings.
I didn’t see any samples of this book on Bassani’s website, but there are some good samples of her work in general.
The Best Age Group
This would be best for the oldest kids to read picture books—those on the verge of moving on from them. Between the vocabulary and the content, this isn’t the best fit for the younger, 1-3 year old, readers.
Does that mean I think you shouldn’t read it to these younger readers? Not at all, but the conscientious adult will adapt the language to their audience. 4-6-year-olds will be able to handle some of the vocabulary (but are going to need a hand with some of it, too).
The material on the last couple of pages, on the other hand. The adult reader is going to have to use their own judgment about whether to read the last two pages to a child (or have them read them, if they’re at that point). Some of the ideas on them could be a bit much for younger readers.
So, what did I think about Secrets of the Wild?
Despite what it may seem, I did enjoy this (mostly because describing an issue takes far more space than talking about a positive). I love the Toy Story-meets-Over the Hedge vibe this book has. I think younger readers are really going to get into the art and the rodeo—not to mention the whole idea that humans miss a lot when it comes to the animal world.
I would like a few more pages—maybe as little as 2. The ending felt a bit too abrupt—we get the introduction of the concept of the fun times animals have without humans being aware, a few pages about the rodeo, the idea that the animals have day jobs, too—and then a quick word about why animals have to keep their lives secret from humans. It just felt uneven—expanding the day job portion by a couple of pages would’ve helped. “I wanted more of the good stuff” is really a pretty good complaint to lodge, I figure.
It’s a fun read—one that will satisfy the target audience, and leave them ready to re-read it. It could’ve been better—but what couldn’t be?
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My thanks to iReads Book Tours for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials they provided.
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