Review for Batty Malgoony's Mystic Carnivale

Batty Malgoony’s Mystic Carnivale

by K. Michael Crawford
(Virtual Book Worm, June 2009)

Batty Malgoony’s Mystic Carnivale is a magical drawing escapade that artists, young and old, are going to love. This is a true drawing book. Along with the beautifully brightly colored artwork covering every page, there are white spaces within the pictures for the reader to draw in and add their own special touches. The theme to this interesting drawing book is the carnival. Carnivals are legendary for their oddities and uniqueness, and what makes them different is what also seems to draw in the crowd. Things people have never seen before, and may never want to see again after they do.

Each page is filled with beautiful artwork of each event at Batty’s Carnivale and the interesting characters who work there, including Batty himself. The author introduces the reader to each area and explains a bit about it, guiding the reader to what needs to be done. What is fantastic are the spaces that he leaves for the reader to draw in. For some of the harder creatures or objects, he created an outline for the reader to follow to help them along and to inspire creativity.

This drawing book is for seven years old and up, definitely for the older children. There may be some drawings that younger children may not like and might find a little gruesome, though the drawings are cleanly done with no violence whatsoever. Even though both boys and girls could have fun with this book, the older boys who like the oddities and the gruesomeness of things, will love the chance to expand on it and be able to add and create really gross and disgusting things and characters.

K. Michael Crawford does a fabulous job with this book. He created a world that the reader can dive into, using their imaginations to propel them into another realm challenging their minds to go beyond the everyday and to really be creative. This drawing book is of course, fantasy, which allows the creation of several fantastical objects, characters, and things. The reader can just have fun. This would be a great book for children to take with them when they go on long trips or are in the car. It will keep their little hands and minds busy for hours.

Reviewer Renee Hand is the award-winning author of The Crypto-Capers series. Look for her upcoming release The Adventures of Joe-Joe Nut and Biscuit Bill, The Great Pie Catastrophe.

Review for The Mystery of Journey's Crowne

The Mystery of Journey’s Crowne

by K. Michael Crawford
(Virtual Book Worm, September 2008)

The Mystery of Journey’s Crowne is an amazing adventure drawing game that is unique and different. It begins with Bazel Lark who is confronted by a man who has a box with a mysterious key tucked neatly inside. The key is supposed to unlock the mystery of Journey’s Crowne. So, of course, Bazel, being the adventurer that he is, buys the key from the man and there begins his adventure. The problem is that, after years of searching, he cannot unlock the mystery. So he puts the problem and adventure to the reader to discover its secrets by having them draw in pictures and solve various puzzles that guide the reader along the way inside of the book.

This book is unique because it is a well-developed picture book slash drawing book slash workbook. The beautiful pictures dominate the reader’s view helping them become creative as to the characters and creatures they will be drawing in the spaces provided. Children who love to draw will love a chance at solving this drawing mystery. The puzzles in this book are diverse and challenging for the reader, which makes them fun to solve. This book is definitely for older children. With the diversity of puzzles, not all readers may know how to solve them. Some of the puzzles have directions on how to solve them, some do not. Unless you are familiar with the various puzzles that are out there, without direction, some may struggle through the puzzle portion. However, if the reader is a big puzzle fan like this reviewer, then the reader will have no problem solving the puzzle portion and can figure everything out on their own just fine.

The author gives several opportunities for children to do research on answering the questions and topics the reader is not familiar with and does not know the answers to, which is really fun. It gets the reader into the story even more and gets the reader to learn interesting facts as well.

Overall, K. Michael Crawford’s adventure book is unique and different from the other picture books slash workbooks out there. The author does a great job at creating such wonderful mysteries and interesting characters.

Reviewer Renee Hand is the award-winning author of The Crypto-Capers series. Look for her upcoming release The Adventures of Joe-Joe Nut and Biscuit Bill, The Great Pie Catastrophe.