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| Masi Tulppa: Pääsy Kielletty! - Jari Mäkipää, selkomukautus Riikka Tuohimetsä |
Children's. Babysitters. Summer vacation.
STORY: It's the first day of summer vacation and Masi has very important plans: play his video game, watch his favorite tv series and work on his comic book. When his parents decide to hire babysitters for him, it's up to him to come up with a plan to send the babysitters away, make his parents change their minds and get back to his summer plans!
This was a fun story, especially for middle grade kids. It reminded me of Astrid Lindgren stories where the kids get into trouble all over town or the Home Alone movies series.
CHARACTERS: The characters in this book are hilarious and very memorable. Masi himself represents every kid during summer when school is out and it's time to spend time on those projects that school gets in the way of. Every single one of his babysitter's (and there are many) have their own personalities and way of behaving and talking that are completely believable.
In addition to the story, this book is packed with black and white pencil illustrations. They are very cartoon-like or comic-like, so the features are exaggerated and really make the characters burst to life from the page.
LANGUAGE: This book is told in third person from Masi's perspective, but we read a lot of his thoughts and there is a lot of dialogue between him and other characters. Masi thinks and speaks and acts like a kid and the vocabulary is representative of that. There is a lot of "puhekieli" and the grammar point in this book goes to the verbs. Because of these, and the length of the book (74 pages, 14 chapters) I give this book an A2.1+ level rating. In a lower rating, the author/translator might use the same verb over and over, but in this book, similar actions are described using a variety of verbs. This is great for expanding one's reading comprehension and vocabulary build-up but does increase the difficulty level.
This book is a selko translation of a book and series of the same name. While the original book is also a middle grade book, this version is much more accessible, not just to selko readers but to all readers in general.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK: This is a fantastic read for middle grade readers. It is funny and believable and I believe that all readers, regardless of background, could identify with Masi. This would be a great book for teachers to share and read aloud in class. Parents and their children would enjoy discussing Masi and his ingenious plans. It's also a great book to just curl up with and read and dream of summer. It's modern and fresh yet also timeless. It also has great re-readability, so it's worth having a copy to own on your own bookshelf at home! Pick up a copy today!
Thanks to Opike for generously providing this book for review. You can purchase this book and many more from their website. You can also find excerpts and illustrations from the book on Opike's website!
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