A Storytelling of Ravens Book Review

Book Review
A Storytelling of Ravens
Written by Kyle Lukoff
Illustrated by Natalie Nelson
Published May 2018

Why we chose this book:
Three words: animals and wordplay
Groundwood Books provided a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Mom's Review

Imagine a group of hippopotamuses, a bloat, to be precise, paddling down the river to a cupcake factory. How will they feel after indulging themselves? Bloated, perhaps? If you like this type of humor, then grab your copy of A Storytelling of Ravens. Each animal group name, from that bloat of hippos to a smack of jellyfish to an ostentation of peacocks, is used with double, hysterical meaning. T didn't understand that "nuisance," "smack," and "ostentation" referred to the animal groups at first; he just thought the cats were annoying the dog, the jellyfish were hitting a boat, and the peacocks were fancy. He enjoyed the silliness of the animals' exploits and the novelty of the illustrations. When I explained how the words had dual meanings, however, he enjoyed the book even more; he loves tricks and humor, and the idea of playing with words, of being a bit tricky, delighted him. The illustrations, likewise, were a source of amusement. Each illustration includes small portions of photographs, which became a seek-and-find game for him. The moon behind the parliament of owls, for example, is a photograph of the full moon.

Short and sweet and silly and sharp, A Storytelling of Ravens is a delight in wordplay and the nuances of the English language.

Son's Review
(Age: 4 years old)
Note: We have now read and discussed A Storytelling of Ravens countless times. T's favorite animal group changes every time.

Mom: What's your favorite page?

Son: My favorite page is the elephant one because some of the elephants want some peanuts and that's silly. / The cat part because I like cats.  The exaltation because I just like exalting. /  This page is my favorite page because I think that these guys [larks] are cuties.

Mom: What's fun about the pictures?

Son: That photographs are on each. So, it's not all photographs.  Look! This part's the photograph. And here. And here!
(T pointing to the spots on some of the giraffes.)

Mom: I like how they play with the words.

Son: Me too. I think that they [jellyfish] smack into the bottom of the glass boat. So FUNNY!!! 

Son, pointing to the sloth of bears: It looks like the bears have a little drink. So it's green and pink bears. Super silly! (turning the page) The duck is the intruder! Isn't it super silly?

Mom: So super silly! Is that what you like about the book?

Son: I'd say it's the best book in the world because it's so silly and I like silly things and a lot of my books are silly and that's the best thing in the world.

Mom: I also like how you can learn and how the author plays with words.

Son: Yeah. So the bloat is the group of hippos. You would get bloated! "Three words: Explosion at the cupcake factory!"
(This is *almost* a quote.)

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