Name: Journey around the world
ISBN: 9781416958376

Sarah Albee

Journey around the world

Sarah Sammis

Sean introduced us to The Backyardigans when he was about Harriet's age. Back then he called Pablo "Pa-blue" since he is a blue penguin. Now that he's seven, he's using his sister's enthusiasm for the series as an excuse to continue watching it.

Flash back to last year when Sean was newly into first grade and just learning to read, he bought a copy of Journey Around the World by Sarah Albee. It's a "ready-to-read" level one book with the most difficult words illustrated with pictures along with the words themselves.

The plot is typical for The Backyardigans: Queen Tasha doesn't believe the world is round. Explorers Uniqua, Pablo, Tyron and Austin vow to bring back gifts from around the world to prove her wrong.

From the cover you'd think their adventure is set in historic times and for the most part it is. Near the end though they travel to new world locations (New York City, for example). I find the switcher-oo a little disconcerting. It's not anything beyond what they do in the series (like the Emperor of China's modern sounding doorbell for example) but it just doesn't work as well for me in book form.