Customer Reviews

Sleep Out

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I was not impressed with this book. Young Christopher gets a sleeping bag and other camping equipment for his birthday. He immediately wants to sleep out, but must wait until the family takes a trip to a cabin in the country. On the way there, he sees a spot by a brook and announces that that is the spot where he will spend the night. Once they arrive at the cabin, he takes his equipment and by himself, sets out for his selected campsite, which is some distance from the cabin. In the night, it starts to rain and he decides to move. As he walks, he hears noises and sets out for an old, empty farmhouse that he has been in before with his friends.
He enters the house and gets scared when he hears noises. Fortunately, his dog Bodger finds him and with this reassurance he falls asleep. In the morning, he goes back to the cabin and tells his father that it was great, but he got a little scared. His father then tells him that they will pitch a tent in the back yard that night.
What I disliked about the book is that this boy is clearly very young and yet his parents let him sleep outside some distance from their location and did not check on him when it started to rain. The suggestion that he enter an abandoned house alone is the wrong message to give children. Finally, after the first night when he was alone, his father then pitches a tent outside the cabin and they spend the next night together. The parents appear neglectful and I did not read this book to my children.

This book is not an appropriate life lesson for a child. Christopher the main character sleeps outside in the woods on his own near water. Then sleeps in an abandoned house when he gets scared. It is abrupt in the flow of the story. Suddenly a scene would change from a previous build-up in the story line. I would not recommend this for children under twelve. And anyone older than twelve wouldn't be interested unfortunately.