Review: A Family Dinner

Name -A Family Dinner

Pages -42
Author -Cory Q Tan
Genre -Children's fiction, Fantasy, Family & Relationships
Rating -5/5
Sources -LibraryThing

Review no. -12

Synopsis -

Mum's cooking carrot and potato soup for dinner, but she's run out of carrots! So she sent Dad on an errand to buy more from the corner grocery shop, just five minutes' walk from home. What could possibly go wrong? Who would expect such a simple outing would turn out to be a great adventure of a life time, filled with dangers and bizarre encounters Dad would never have expected or forget. Follow our hero on this simple mission gone terribly wrong, and witness the incredible strength, determination, and courage of a parent who would do everything he could to make an ordinary dinner possible. This story is a tribute to all parents, myself included, who would do anything, even if it means having to face our greatest fears or undertake the most unpleasant tasks, to bring happiness to our children and our family. It is targeted at children aged 3-8 and suitable for everyone.

Review -

In this book the author, Cory Q Tan, has taken this real-life situation and has transformed it into enchanting fantasy where the Dad having to get a bunch of carrots so Mom could make her Carrot and Potato Soup for dinner set out for what should have taken only a few minutes but winds up on an unbelievable journey taking practically the entire day as he follows one lead after another to find those freshly picked carrots. Along the way the bag of carrots he had purchased got snatched up by a huge black bird which he couldn’t recover, he then encounters a huge worm who’s got his head caught in an even larger apple, which he helps free; a huge wolf with an agonizing toothache his he successfully pulled while being afraid he could be eaten at any time by it.
By the end of the day he rescues a young bunny who’s found his way into the ocean trying to get back a toy which got out there and not being able to swim back, and as soon as he held the bunny safely in his arms, they got swallowed by a huge fish, which then got caught and everyone climb out of the fish. The bunny’s grateful parents gave Dad a huge bunch of freshly picked carrots they had grown.
With this fantastic journey behind him, when Dad finally got home and while everyone had been happy to see him after so long, he learned that Mom had changed the menu for their dinner to pasta.

I got this book by the author through library thing and I would seriously like to thank him for awakening the child in me. I loved the story very much. It is a must read for all the kids. It is hilarious. It teaches us many values like how important parents are or how unconditional their love is, how we should always help others etc. In fact, it also teaches us how fortunate we are that we get food. In short, I highly recommend this book to all the kids (and also people who are looking for a quick read).