Last week we talked about Babe: The Gallant Pig (linked to my review.) After we finished that story, it was somewhat of a challenge to convince Bookworm1 to take up another chapter book. Nevertheless, I laid a stack of possibilities in front of him to choose from and he decided to go with The Water Horse, also by Dick King-Smith. The idea of a sea dragon was compelling enough to get him back into a chapter book story and boy did we both enjoy his pick!If A Mouse Called Wolf was a hit, The Water Horse was even more so! It has everything that we could possibly want right now: an often hungry and usually funny boy about Bookworm1's age, a mysterious sea dragon that the family treats as a pet. The sea dragon also did us the favor of eating other sea life which we could then read and talk about!
In case you are unfamiliar with the premise of the story, it is this (stolen shameless from Amazon):
Set in the 1930s, this story tells of a young Scottish girl, Kirstie, and her brother, Angus, who find a mysterious egg capsule washed up on shore after a storm and take it home. To their delight, this "mermaid's purse" hatches into a lovable sea monster they call Crusoe. It keeps growing and growing, until finally it is too big to live anywhere but in nearby Loch.
Categories:
Entertainment,
The Water Horse
