This is a collection of stories and poems aimed at very young children – playschool or primary school. The cover is gorgeous, and why I picked this up.

The author’s foreword contains a statement that these stories are designed to entertain and have a moral message, teaching children about climate responsibility and similar. However there are issues. First, there are grammar problems, though no spelling errors I could find. Second, not all the stories teach the message that the author may have intended.

Dealing with the issues in reverse order, one of the worst offenders has Telly the Telephone thrown in the trash and finding a new home at the dump. This might be a UK/US difference but in the UK phones with cracked screens are sold, traded in, or have to go to special (expletive deleted, please start allowing walk-ins, dear councillors!) recycling places. The ‘place of broken things’ gives children a very bad message it is acceptable to throw electronics in the trash.

“Unusual help from smartphones” has a great message about being honest, and a definitely not-so-great message about how children should let their phones do their thinking for them.

“I went back to the post office and asked for the unclaimed letters.” Yeah, no. Also asking for free goods (like all the “unused paints in the artshop”) from shops is not something we want to encourage in children, not matter how creative they feel.

Others have a rather broken happy ending: the first has any adult or child capable of critical reasoning asking why her parents won’t just make her give her pets back again?

On the other hand, “I have a clone” is a standout story, that gets its point across in an easy to understand and clear message, but never bothers to give the clone a name.

With regard to grammar, there is a recurring error on the first page that instantly set my teeth on edge, and recurs intermittently throughout the book. When a new speaker begins dialog in a conversation, their speech section should start a new line. A dialog or action tag may follow. This book reverses that frequently. Sentences start with ‘But’ when a comma rather than a full stop would be better than a new sentence – though it is done correctly in other places.

Formatting was slightly off for the poems, but I’m using the cloud reader which is not consistent on formatting, so I’m not commenting.

All in all, as a freebie, it is fine. For parents aware of the mixed messages, of who don’t care, its a decent book of short stories and poems to keep their children entertained. Just don’t think too hard about them!