Review: Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude by Kevin O'Malley

Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers

Release Date: 1St Edition edition (April 1, 2005)

More Info: Amazon

Book Blurb: Once upon a time there was ... a princess who loved all her beautiful ponies, a cool muscle dude who rode an awesome motorcycle. But a giant came and started stealing them! The dude came to fight the ugly, smelly giant with his mighty sword. She turned gold into thread while she cried for Buttercup, her favorite pony. And he took the princess's gold thread for payment The end!

Wait a minute! That's not how it ends!

Oh no?

Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl who had to tell a fairy tale to the class, but they couldn't agree on the story. Will everyone live happily ever after?

My Thoughts: As a parent of both a son and a daughter, this book is a godsend! It's got just enough glitter and pretty ponies to make my little miss happy, and enough action to keep my son entertained. It also just makes me laugh.

O'Malley captures the competitive, bickering nature of two kids perfectly, and the illustrations by Carol Heyer make our dueling storytellers' tales come to life. One of the great things about this book is watching the two kids go from the excitement of competing stories, to the exhilaration of creating one together. It's a very natural progression that wll make anyone who deals with kids smile.

I love books that draw kids in and encourages them to go on and tell their own stories. Any time I read this to the kids, I'm guaranteed to have pages of crazy pictures and scrawled print all over the house the next day. Sometimes they work together, and sometimes on their own. Either way, it's highly entertaining.

The reviewer owns this book.