Review for Marion and the Secret Letter
I just had to try out this book when I spotted there would be hamsters included! Plus the cover looked adorable, so I was hoping the illustrations would also be cute like that.
However, right from the bat, the blurb spoils a lot. The title is not really fitting (the letter finding isn’t until the end). The hamster? That was a surprise and doesn’t happen until chapter 2 or 3. Whose turn it is happens a few pages later. The hamster says at her home for 3 days, and only goes missing at the second night (the first night he almost runs away, but they catch him, the next day they get a hamster ball for him, and thus the next night is the night it happens). sighs How hard is it to write a blurb that is A) Correct and B) Doesn’t spoil everything? Please. -1.5 stars for that since I am getting really tired of blurb like this. 😐
Now back to the book, it is super duper adorable, and I really like Marion. She was a sweet girl, and I was happy she was the first one to take Teddy with her for the weekend (and a bit longer). She really kept a close eye on the instruction and follows it correctly (though you really don’t need to change the hamster food every day, or clean the entire cage every few days), but she holds the hamster correctly, and even gets him a hamsterball so he can play outside of his cage.
The Critter Club, I guess I will need to read/find the other books in this series if I want to know what that is all about, we do get some background stuff, but it isn’t a lot, so I was a bit confused. Still it sounds quite nice, and it makes me like the girls in the book even more that they are so dedicated to animals.
The other girls in the book seem interesting, I am curious if the series will switch between the girls, that would be so much fun. I want to get to know them all.
Ah, one last thing, can those people buy a bigger cage for the hamster please? That size is just way too tiny for that critter. He will get bored/gnaw on his bars. Believe me, you need at least triple that size or even bigger if you want your hammie to be happy. Especially with a Syrian hamster.
The illustrations were adorable, and I loved how many of them there were. Each page at at least one, sometimes even more. The style is cute, and I love how the characters and the animals were drawn.
So all in all, while this one had flaws (including a blurb that is bad, a hamster cage and care that is a bit flawed) it was still a cute book and I had lots of fun reading it.