William A. E. Ford

This review first appeared on scifiandscary.com - copy provided by the author for review consideration
‘Timothy Mean and the Time Machine’ is a picture book for younger children about a young boy adventuring through time. Each day he visits a different time period and gets up to mischief. The book features dinosaurs, Vikings, dragons (?), the moon and other things bound to appeal to kids. The story is told in rhyming verse that’s designed to be read by parents to their little ones.
The first thing that struck me about the book is how good the illustrations are. They’re richly detailed, colourful, vibrant and fun. They make the book something of a delight to flip through, each page has something new to enjoy and I’m sure kids will have fun exploring them with Timothy. In fact, unusually, the cover of the book isn’t as good as the artwork within it. Unfortunately, the quality of the writing in the book isn’t as high as that of the artwork.
As a father, I’ve read countless story books aloud to my son. Those days are past now (which makes me feel a little sad and nostalgic), but all those bedtimes taught me that there is a real talent to writing books that are fun to read aloud. Unfortunately, the verse here just doesn’t flow smoothly enough. Odd rhymes abound and the lines don’t always scan properly. It makes all makes for a less pleasurable reading experience than it could have been.
The other problem I had with the book, is that the protagonist, Timothy, is as mean as his name suggests. He plays cruel pranks in each of the time zones he visits, with little apparent motive beyond random cruelty. I think this kind of thing can be fun in children’s books, but only if the victims of the pranks are shown to be deserving of the cruelty. Roald Dahl’s books are such enduring classics because they give their child heroes licence to take comedically horrible revenge on adults. By comparison, the pranks in ‘Timothy Mean’ feel random and unnecessarily malicious.
This is a book of two halves, then. The artwork is joyous, the writing less so. Between the two it’s still entertaining enough, and I can see it appealing to some kids, even if it doesn’t reach the bar set by the likes of Julia Donaldson.
… (lisätietoja)

Great art full of charming detailed and imaginative imagery! Perfectly understandable for a 3 year old, and appealing enough that he wanted me to read it again right away. The places visited by Timothy's time machine are great and varied. I took the opportunity to have a conversation with my son about how Timothy's behavior is not nice in most of the situations. He steals from the pirates, teases animals, and is generally naughty in mild ways. My son and I talked about how it is fine to pretend to do naughty things like Timothy does, but actually doing them is altogether different.

I received a review copy of this book for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily without any compensation.… (lisätietoja)

Intricate, lovely art, and a lot of learning hidden in there

The story is cute and charming, and a great length. The prose is fun to read, with a lot of slant rhyme and a really fun meter that keeps it moving. I also appreciated that the book was teaching bits of geography in a really fun way and locating animals in their natural habitat. Some of the background art is striking beautiful, and all of it had enough going on to have a conversation with my little one about it.

My 4 year old son's opinion was, "I love that book. Can you read it again?"

I highly recommend this book.… (lisätietoja)

Timothy Mean is bored. He's imaginative and wants to find something to do. So, he finds a cardboard box, some glue and crafting supplies and builds a time machine. Every day of the week he uses his time machine to zoom off to a fun place in history. From pulling dinosaur tails to playing pranks on astronauts, there is nothing Timothy Mean can't do with a vivid imagination!

This is such a cute book for young kids! The rhyming story of Timothy Mean and the colorful, fun illustrations would make this a perfect book for beginning readers to read themselves or have read to them. Timothy has some pretty awesome adventures using his time machine. I can see this story being used in an elementary or home school classroom setting for group or supplemental reading, with related art and writing projects. If you could build a time machine and pop back to have some fun, where would you go? What would you do? I imagine a group of kindergartners or first graders could make some pretty awesome time machines, too!

Cute story! Engaging, colorful illustrations! And an adventure for each day of the week! Great book! Full stars from this former home school teacher, Mom and Oma! Fun read!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book by William A. E. Ford. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**… (lisätietoja)