2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nicely done book, surprise ending!, February 8, 2005
You know you have joined the 21st century when children's books show the protagonist playing a video game. Undoubtedly, most kids will be able to relate to this, but I confess I didn't know what "level 20" meant when I opened this book. It was a jarring contrast to what seemed to be the topic of the book: fall leaves. Then it hit me, the contrast is one of the things that makes this book interesting and as arresting as the bright, digitally-colored illustrations that help tell the story. And the story is that Mom forces the video-game-playing boy to go outside and play. While outside, he and some likewise digitally marooned boys decide the last leaf to fall is the lucky one. His friends finally give up the wait, and there are some humorous frames of the boy and his dog in the leaves, impatiently waiting. Finally, he does catch it and take it home where - no surprise - he is wearing the leaf on his head to give him luck while he again plays level 20. It's not a typical story where the young boy rediscovers nature, but it is something kids can relate to, even if it does make some of us diehard video-game haters blood boil!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
nice fall time read, March 4, 2005
The book is about a boy who is really into his video game. He's almost beating level 20 when his mom calls for him to play outside. He's really upset. Once outside he finds that his frinds are outside as well. Their parents sent them out as well for some nice fall air. They notice that one tree has one leaf left. One boy says that he heard that the last leaf to fall from the tree is lucky. So the boys wait and wait for it to fall. Two of the boys finally give up and only one waits it out. When the leaf falls he takes it back inside and puts it on his head. Then it's back to the video game to see if it will bring him luck!
The book is a good read for all ages. I liked the illustrations in the book.
I would recommend this book to others. It's a good fall time theme book. It can lead to discussions on weather and leafs. It only has a few words per page making it easy to share with lots of age groups.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Luck be a lady tonight, May 30, 2005
There are some staples of childhood that have been around as long as there have been children. Parents nagging kids to wash their hands before eating. Kids leaving their toys out for everyone to trip over. Yadda yadda yadda. The nice thing about kids, though, is that as the world around them changes, they often adapt perfectly. Consequently, the things parents nag them about change as well. When I was a kid (and I am now 27) my mother would tell me to stop playing video games on my Commodore 64 and go outside to get some fresh air. 20 some odd years later, parents are still yelling at their kids to do the same dang thing. It's a whole new childhood staple. In "Lucky Leaf" our protagonist goes head to head with nature, triumphs, then immediately rushes back to his indoor world. It makes for an amusing picture book.
Told entirely in the form of a cartoon (complete with speech bubbles) our young hero begins the book by coming within a hair's breath of beating the near impossible level 20 on his video game. His mother, hearing his joy, abruptly puts an end to it by telling him to go play outside (his reply that he is, in fact, playing goes ignored). With much grumbling he does so, meeting up with two other friends who have been similarly thrown from their own homes. While under a tree they see a single orange leaf poised to blow away at the top of a tree. As everyone knows, the last leaf on a tree is a lucky one. "But only if you can catch it". The rest of the book consists of our hero attempting to outsmart the stubborn foliage, whether by hiding behind a tree or under a pile of its fellows. By the end, the leaf is caught and our hero's luck is put to good kid-sized use.
It's not exactly the deepest picture book out there, but for any parent who has ever had to virtually pick their young `un up by the belt and fling them into nature, this book will feel eerily familiar. Usually in books of this era, the hero would learn about nature and return indoors at last to eschew the lure of video games forevermore. And how realistic would that ending be, anyway? Here, the kid meets nature, has a fine time, then returns to what he really wants to do. Beat level 20!
The colors in this tale are fully autumnal. If you're looking for some kind of a fall related picture book, I can think of few better than this, visually. But just as the book is about a video related subject, so too are the pictures best attributed to the world of the computer. I took a quick glance at the title page and saw that these colors were actually the result of clever PhotoShopping. So much for paint. Still, I enjoyed watching the squirrels in these pages. For a fun time, compare the endpapers at the beginning of the book to the ones at the end.
As fall picture books go, this one's so so. Some people will swear by it. Others, like myself, will notice that there's just not much of a plot here. The book won't age particularly well, since the gaming console the boy holds will undoubtedly be out of date in less than 5 years. But it's a fun tale, an intriguing new way of telling one boy's story, and a pleasant reading experience for those households that can relate.
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