Books for Benjamin - R.G. de Rouen - ★★★.¾

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AUTHOR: R.G. de Rouen
ILLUSTRATOR: Uliana Barabash
GENRE: Children's Picture Book
PUBLICATION DATE: October 21, 2022
RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A cute indie picture book for early readers. Takes the word ‘bookworm’ to a whole new level!


Plot Preview:
Benjamin the worm lives in the back lot of a grocery store with his family. While the rest of the worms devour their way through scraps, Benjamin eats up books, not in the way a worm should but by actually reading them. Imagine the horror of his family at this unhealthy habit!
As Benjamin wants more reading material than he finds, he makes an ingenious plan to get access to books. But his plan, while taking some stumbles at the start, works even better than he dreamt.


The story of this book is obviously exaggerated, as is evident from the fact that Benjamin the worm can actually read books. But that’s the fun of reading a children’s story – its imaginativeness needs no bounds.

Benjamin is a wonderful character, what with his love for books and his courage in pursuing his dreams. Little readers will surely enjoy his adventurous quest for new reading material, which culminates in a location they might not even have heard of. The ending made me chuckle, while still impressing me with how creatively the author had created a connection between Benjamin and a symbol that is found in every book.

There are some fun facts at the end about libraries and about the special symbol, both of which sync perfectly with the plot.

On the flip side, the second half of the story goes by too fast and on too grand a scale. The reactions and situations seem exaggerated, even for a fanciful picture book. I’d also have loved some details on why Benjamin chose that specific letter of the alphabet as his signature, especially as his name doesn’t begin with it.

The story is written in text blocks of 1-2 sentences, and each page contains not more than 3-4 such blocks. Thus, the textual content is a little more than typical in beginner-level picture books, but the page layout makes it easy on the eyes. There are a couple of difficult words herein, but these can be explained with adult guidance.

I am not sure what art style the illustrations are in (pastel sketches made digitally, perhaps?), but they complement the story in cuteness as well as vibrancy. However, at times, the size of the critters in the story wrt other elements isn’t on a realistic scale, making them appear more like colourful snakes and giant bugs than like regular-sized insects.

All in all, a sweet little story for little book lovers, combining a whimsical plot with some interesting facts. Maybe kids won’t be so afraid of worms after getting to know Benjamin. 😉 This book would work well for little readers aged 3-8 years.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through a StoryOrigin promotion. This review is voluntary and contains an honest opinion about my reading experience.

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