4 stars
This was such an adorable book. Humorous, silly, and fun. I especially enjoyed the artwork. Each page is so detailed and really enhances the story. Adam Rex built a whole world in the illustrations and they pair so perfectly with the narration. Sometimes with children’s books, I feel too caught up in the words to really enjoy the pictures, but the narration in this one is so simple that it is dependent on the pictures to continue the story and flesh out the details. Fun format that was engaging and entertaining.
A note on formats:
I initially checked out a digital copy of this book from the library (through Overdrive) before realizing they only had the audiobook. I was unsure how it would translate in audio form and was a bit disappointed because there wasn’t much to it. After finally tracking down an ebook (through Hoopla, which came with the ebook and read-along), I got to appreciate the full story.
If you just listen to the audiobook alone, you only get part of the story. It works well as a read-along, but isn’t really that interesting by itself. I enjoyed Gaiman reading the story, but you really need to have some sort of copy with the pictures as well when listening to it. Would not recommend the audio on its own but is perfect for children to listen to while they page through the book. The read-along feature was very fun and engaging.