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5.0 out of 5 stars
Sensitive and Brave, March 16, 2008
This review is from: The Adventures of Sammy Snowflake (v. I) (Hardcover)
The Adventures of Sammy the Snowflake is about a young snowflake who learns of his destiny, and then runs away to negotiate alternatives with Weather. Along the way, he and his best friend have various adventures, including an encounter with a monster.
This story is as delicately written as a snowflake itself. It awakens the reader's imagination with simultaneous innocence and wisdom, all the while addressing timeless concerns that permeate humanity: destiny, courage, looking beneath the surface, environmentalism, friendship, and more. This book is a delightful and nutritious morsel!
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
New Kid's Series, November 24, 2007
This review is from: The Adventures of Sammy Snowflake (v. I) (Hardcover)
The Adventures of Sammy the Snowflake vol.1 by Brooke Becker, Illustrated by T. Kyle Gentry is a new series for the young chapter book reader, with clever and whimsical illustrations. Sammy is an anthropomorphic snowflake with family and friends, old enough to begin to learn the facts of life and do some exploring on his own. To that end he and his friend run away on what sounds like an adult spiritual quest, which includes narration that loosely camouflages teachings about finding the meaning of life. The best part of the book is what the young reader learns about climate warming and the devastation mankind is causing the environment, hence threatening the life of Sammy and all snowflakes.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A child's tale about fear of change, the dangers of global warming and the negative effect of unsubstantiated biases, October 12, 2007
This review is from: The Adventures of Sammy Snowflake (v. I) (Hardcover)
The primary moral of this story is that since change is inevitable, we must welcome it and mold it to our own ends and desires. Sammy is a snowflake and he is finally told the facts of life that has always been hinted at but never confirmed. It is his destiny to fall from the sky, melt into liquid, be vaporized and then rise back up into the clouds to be reformed. Although this is what has happened to all snowflakes since the beginning of their history, this prospect frightens him.
He has heard the legends of the Great and Wise Snowflake Elders that reside at the Hidden Crystalline Monastery and he and his good friend Sylvie decide to journey to the Monastery to consult them. They pack sound provisions of cookies and cider and walk out into the unknown.
Their journey is a treacherous one, along the way they encounter some of the consequences of global warning and discuss the actions of those strange land creatures called people. They are in agreement that people are illogical to be doing what they are doing to damage their environment. As they make their way to the Crystalline Monastery, Sammy and Sylvie must also overcome their own prejudices against the snowflakes that have a different outward appearance. They realize that they were wrong about many things and begin to understand that compassion and understanding is the only way to solve such problems between creatures.
In terms of sentence complexity and plot, this story is written at the level of the late elementary school child. The story has merit, as does nearly every one that involves warning about the dangers of global warming and the overcoming of unwarranted prejudices. I recommend it as supplementary reading material for late elementary school children.
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