Book Review: Green Bird by Mark Ansel

So the other day was my mother in law's funeral service. It was a quiet affair but it was rough for my son. He didn't understand what was going on and soon he became antsy. So I took him to a small corner and sat down and pulled out my phone. I only had a few books loaded on there for him but remembered that I had requested a review copy of Green Bird from *Tomoson (a company that connects bloggers with companies).

Green Bird is the story of a little green bird who lives with a pink squirrel. One day Green Bird decides he wants to find his real family.  So off he flys encountering many other "green" creatures and objects. But none of them are his family. Little Green Bird decides he wont give up looking for his family.

Ok so...I have some mixed feelings on this book. First it reminded me a lot of my mother's favorite children's book Are You My Mother? The reason I say that is because Green Bird asks every green object he comes upon if it is a green bird. I'm still not sure on how I feel on the parallel between the two books. I could look past the one or two grammatical errors as this was a review copy I was reading. But, there was one thing that I did not like. The book ends on a cliffhanger. Call me old fashioned but I don't think children's picture books should ever end on a cliffhanger. There should always be a happily ever after or at least a happily for now. Five year olds shouldn't have to wait for the next book (is there going to be one?) to find out if Green Bird finds his family. Most children's books are set up so that way it doesn't matter what order you read them in and they always have a resolution. Even the Harry Potter books end with a happily for now.

With that all said it wasn't a terrible book. I liked the simple and sweet illustrations.
It was cute and my son enjoyed it. He liked trying to figure out what the green things were that the bird came upon before they were revealed. He also didn't seem to mind that we didn't find Green Bird's family. So I asked him what he thought of the book. With a finger gently tapping his chin he told me. "I think I'm gonna go with 5 stars mommy."

So there you have it 5 out of 5 stars for my son


*I recieved a review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion
**This book was read with my special needs son who is severely learning disabled. The review reflects not only my opinion but his as well