BOOK REVIEW: The House of Terry Atterberry

Title: The House of Terry Atterberry
Genre: Children’s Book
Print Length: 48 pages
Publisher: Not Listed
Publication Date: February 23, 2018
Author: Harsha Sheelam
 
SYNOPSIS: The book is a collection of intelligent stories from the life of Terry Atterberry, who is the tiny protagonist, clad in blue clothes and polka dot socks paired with yellow shoes. The rosy- cheeked boy teaches children 15 real-life lessons in the book “The House of Terry Atterberry”. He lives along with his parents in a mushroom house. He is best friends with Bernie, Darby, Pratt, and Mini. Along with his friends, Terry learns new things at Borrow Dale School and in ‘The House of Terry Atterberry’.

The stories are based on age-old and contemporary themes. At the end of every chapter, the reader understands the lesson learned. These morals equip the children for a better adulthood. The riches that kids gain by reading these tales is love, care, honesty, humanity, hard work, overcoming fear, not to be greedy, avoiding laziness, not undermining people, understanding no one is perfect, knowing true friends, and lots more. The author pens instructive and inspiring fables from a fictional character’s life which will help children to develop character as well as have a fun time reading. The stories of Terry Atterberry are a rich mine of moral literacy which aids to anchor children in our culture, values, and ideals.

EXTERIOR / COVER DESIGN: The cover illustration is detailed and intriguing. At first glance, you see a large mushroom but immediately notice there is a door on the mushroom. The cover forces you to use your imagination to attempt to figure out how the stories relate to the mushroom. The background displays mountains and a grassy area with a ton of detail that allows you to picture yourself in the environment immediately.

ILLUSTRATIONS: There are no illustrations inside the book.

REVIEW: The House of Terry Atterberry is a collection of 15 short stories. Each story teaches children valuable lessons about humility, politeness, happiness and more. The first story “Blondie” is based on Terry Atterberry and his friends. They were all playing a game and one of his friends, Bernie, felt as if she was being picked on because of her wrong answers. Terry ends up standing up for Bernie which is a quality that young readers should pick up on.
The one thing that seemed to be lacking from this book was illustrations. Although all books do not need to contain illustrations, these stories contain specific details such as Terry visiting a Cheerios stand. There wasn’t much description of the actual stand and the event that was taking place. Illustrations would have served as a visual to allow children to get an actual visual of the setting the stories were taking place.

RATING: 4 out of 5 STARS