Adventure in Legoland (Little Apple) [Paperback]

Carol Matas (Author)

Book Description

Series: Little Apple | Publication Date: January 1992

Aaron is just a normal eight-year-old boy on a family trip to the Legoland Amusement Park in Denmark. Then one night he hears Queen Titania's call for help. So he makes his way to Legoland Park and before he knows it, he's the same size as the Lego people. And he's trying to rescue the queen's son from kidnappers! Illustrated.

Product Details

• Paperback: 99 pages
• Publisher: Little Apple (January 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590438751
• ISBN-13: 978-0590438759
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,692,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Pint-Sized Adventure for Pint-Sized Readers, June 29, 2009

By 

Dwight Blubaugh "MichiBlue" (The only Eaton Rapids on Earth, MI, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adventure in Legoland (Little Apple) (Paperback)

Aaron has always been known as a wild boy, full of excess energy and always getting himself into trouble. But when Aaron and his family travel from their home in Winnipeg, Canada, to Denmark, Aaron is put to the test. As he and his family slumber in their hotel room, Aaron is awakened by a distant cry for help in the night. He unsuccessfully tries to rouse his family members, then follows the continuing cries for help, ending up at the Legoland Park they had visited the previous day, where everything is miniature.

Aaron is amazed when he sees life going on in Legoland, with even the tiny moving people made of Legos. A tiny fairy appears and asks for Aaron's help, giving him a potion that will shrink him to Lego size for twelve hours, then taking him to Queen Titania, the queen of the fairies. Titania tells Aaron that Bad Bart of Legoredo (a la The Wild West) has kidnapped her son, and she wonders whether Aaron would be willing to save him - Bad Bart has invented a poison that is deadly to fairies, as he has told the queen in his ransom note, so they are left powerless to help him. The queen is afraid that if Prince Aryeh is not quickly rescued, he will be tempted to join Bad Bart's gang and adopt his evil ways. She offers Aaron an official voucher that should purchase any needed supplies and open doors for him, and sends him to enlist the help of the Sheriff of Legoredo in defeating Bart.

Aaron accepts the challenge and begins his journey to rescue Aryeh, with plenty of help from others. He faces his fears and channels his extra energy to help him.

Most children's books have some kind of lesson / message, whether directly stated or not. In ADVENTURE IN LEGOLAND, one of the main messages is clearly stated on page 76. Aaron and Prince Aryeh are contemplating how it would be to join up with Bad Bart, knowing how much fun it would be to be bad and not have to follow rules or worry about getting in trouble. But then Aaron decides against it, saying, "I didn't really want to anyhow...You know, I'll bet Bad Bart has lots of rules, too. HIS rules. And if we broke them, we'd get into much more trouble than we would at home. And of course, we'd be breaking the law."

There's a lot of wisdom in those few sentences - if you decide not to follow society's rules, street life has its own set of rules, and the "rules" in a gang, prison, or the mafia are much worse, with much more dangerous consequences. Working with fourth grade students, I can sometimes predict which of them are destined for a life outside the normal societal rules and are destined for bigger troubles.

ADVENTURE IN LEGOLAND was an enjoyable book, though not terribly creative. Matas did work in a few positive themes - loyalty to friends, the positive aspects of being "hyper," helping others, staying focused on a purpose, and others.

Matas, a Jewish, Canadian author, has written some phenomenal young adult books about the Holocaust, the Danish resistance, and the struggle to form Israel as an independent nation, including KRIS'S WAR (also published as JESPER and CODE NAME: KRIS) and its sequel LISA'S WAR (also published as LISA), DANIEL'S STORY, and AFTER THE WAR and its sequel THE GARDEN. She has also written a sequel to ADVENTURE IN LEGOLAND called SAFARI ADVENTURE IN LEGOLAND.

I would rate this book a 6 on a scale of 1-10.