Larry the Lizard has always dreamed of snow.
Welcome to one of the January 20th stops on the blog tour for The Lizard Who Loves a Blizzard by Shelley Larkin & Michael Sullivan with iRead Book Tours (schedule linked.) Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, author guest posts & interviews, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.
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About the Book
The Lizard Who Loves a Blizzard
by Shelley Larkin & Michael Sullivan
Illustrated by Yanaisy Puentes Cruz
Published 7 September 2021
Magic Everywhere Inc
Genre: Children’s Fiction
Page Count: 36
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
Larry the Lizard has always dreamed of snow. The only problem is, he lives in Australia. Find out what happens when a lizard gets a very silly idea… and it finally comes true. Join Larry and his friends as they skid, skate, slide and have an adventure in this wonderful ride.
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My Review
My Rating: 4 Stars
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I was granted complimentary access to The Lizard Who Loves a Blizzard as part of my participation in a blog tour for this title with iRead Book Tours. Thank you to all involved in affording me this opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
The Lizard Who Loves a Blizzard is the story of a little lizard name Larry who lives in Australia and dreams of a snowy, white Christmas. Alas, since Christmas falls in the middle of summer in Australia, that’s impossible. Isn’t it?
Overall this story is very cute and I can see it being a favourite bedtime story in some families or a go-to holiday storytime read in primary grade classrooms. For global north audiences, this provides a bit of educational content about the differences in seasons between the northern and southern hemispheres. For global south audiences, this will prove to be a fun “but that couldn’t really happen!” story of whimsy about a blizzard in December. My only critique for the story itself is the line where Larry thinks of generational stories of a time when it did, indeed, snow at Christmas. If Larry is a lizard in Australia then his ancestors all the way back to pre-history have likely never seen snow in December. Although many species were introduced to the continent, the reptiles are indigenous.
The illustrations in this book are bright and fun. They appear to be digitally produced but have a watercolour feel to them, which is charming. As for the overall formatting of the book, I hope that the PDF I was granted access to is not the final printing/eBook file. The text did not appear to be lined up with the corresponding illustrations quite right, the font constantly changed (sometimes to fonts that were difficult to read) and even the text size was inconsistent.
Final thoughts: This is a cute story with equally cute illustrations, and I think it will be well received among kids all over. My only real concern is that if the PDF sent to reviewers was meant to be the final eBook file then someone needs to go back and fix some text formatting issues.
About the Authors
Shelley Larkin is the co-creator of The Lizard Who Loves a Blizzard, Nick Knitley and The SockKids, and is co-developing other animation series with Michael, including the Dr. Neverme and Dinomike projects. Shelley is involved in all aspects of the animation ventures, including marketing and promotions, and merchandising of books, videos and other products.One of Shelley’s passions is the Destination Imagination (DI) worldwide learning program for kids K-12, where she served as Director in the greater Sacramento area. Focused on creative problem-solving techniques, hundreds of thousands of children are served by the program each year, supported by thousands of volunteers. Shelley was presented with the DI Spirit of Discovery Award in recognition of her outstanding commitment and devotion to the global program. Michael and Shelley’s initial collaboration was co-authoring a children’s short story, “The Sock Kids Stand Up Against Bullying”, a nationally distributed book developed in concert with Destination Imagination. This story creates awareness of an important life lesson for children, and shows how The SockKids can deliver these messages through animation and books.
Michael John Sullivan is the co-creator of The Lizard Who Loves a Blizzard, Nick Knitley and The SockKids. He is also co-developing three other animation series, including the Dr. Neverme and Dinomike projects. Sullivan has written several children’s books, including a Digimon series book with HarperCollins Publishing. In addition, Michael has written five novels, receiving awards and best-selling status.His first book, Necessary Heartbreak, was published by Simon & Schuster and was named by the prestigious Library Journal as one of the best books in 2010. Sullivan previously advocated for the homeless, drawing off of his own experience of riding the New York City trains at night for one winter. He has written articles about the plight for CNN.com, The Washington Post website, The Huffington Post, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Patch.com. Before he took up living among his animated characters, Michael worked for ESPN, Rival.com, Scout.com, and the Sporting News, covering high school and college basketball. He is a former board member of the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless.
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Giveaway Alert!
Enter to win a signed copy of The Lizard Who Loves A Blizzard (one winner/USA only) (ends Feb 7)
The Lizard Who Loves A Blizzard Book Tour GiveawayDisclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Want more? Check out my review of You Can Do Anything by Danni Maynard
Lovely artwork