Disclaimer: I was provided an advanced copy of this book from the author to facilitate this review. As always, all opinions are my own.
- The Facts: Eli’s 1st Winter Carnival, written by Lisa Bowen, Illustrated by Nina Vanessa Pontillas, published in the USA 2016, 23 pages, ISBN: 978-1539843542
- The Review: Eli’s 1st Winter Carnival is a wonderful story of a little boy’s adventures with his family at a winter carnival, written through the eyes of the protagonist Eli. Eli is excited that he is finally old enough to go to his first winter carnival because of the many fun activities he gets to embark upon with his family, including making snow angels, tobogganing, and building a silly snowman, followed by some quality family time at home reflecting on all the fun he had with his family all day.
- This book targets early readers (ages 5 and up), but could be read to younger children as a fun night time story or before you go with your own family on a fun, wintry, outdoors adventure. As soon as I took this book out of the package my son, who devours books, was on top of it. He read it cover-to-cover in about eight minutes flat. When he finished, I asked him what he thought of the book and the first thing he said was, “Mommy, Eli could be me”. I can’t tell you how heartwarming that reaction was for me to hear, especially since he doesn’t often read books that depict little boys that look like him. My younger daughter, an early reader, picked the book up after her brother finished and insisted I read it with her. We read it and her first reaction was, “Mommy, when can we build a silly snowman like the one in the book?”. Clearly the book resonates with the target demographic and it was truly a pleasure to read.