Book Review: Aye-Aye Gets Lucky! š
Aye-Aye Gets Lucky is the story of a mischievous little lemur who needs to learn a lesson about compassion and empathy. There’s a lot more than that, including sweet moments and laughs and great writing and illustration, but in the end, the story is a great one for teachable moments.
Written by Terri Tatchell (who you may know from her writing on films like District 9 and Chappie) and illustrated by Ivan Sulima, this is a children’s book that does a fantastic job of combining awareness for an endangered species, adorable imagery, an important lesson about behaviour, and fun. That’s a lot of balls in the air. It’s easy to find a kid’s storybook that has fun illustrations and fun words – but adding in actual importance can sometimes take away from the other pieces. This time it doesn’t, and that’s great.
Ollie and I have read Aye-Aye Gets Lucky a couple of times now. He smiles when I read in silly voices. He points to Aye-Aye and other pieces of the illustrations that I ask him to find, and he loves a story, so it’s all good fun.
However, I do think that this is a book that is better suited for him when he gets a little older. When he can understand a little better and talk to us about Aye-Aye and endangered species or empathy, I think we’ll be able to create a bigger impact for him. All of those things make so much sense that we’ve ordered a copy as a Christmas present for one of our favourite six-year-olds.
The use of people, the Aye-Aye, and the Flying Fox to all tell essential parts of the story is wonderful. Each of their perspectives matters. Each of their stories plays a part in the overall message. And adding in the Flying Fox also gives readers a chance to learn about another little known animal. Bonus.
And while I keep telling you how great the writing and illustrations are (and they are), I need to point out that there’s excellent bonus material in the back of the book. Our paperback version has two pages of fun facts about the Aye-Aye and Flying Fox. It has how to draw instructions and tips on how to help the animals. It’s an added layer of interaction and certainly helps to increase the connection of children to the animals and story.
Before we go, here are three of my favourite fun facts about Aye-Ayes that I learned from the back pages of Aye-Aye Gets Lucky.
1) Aye-Ayes are 1 of over 100 species of lemurs.
2) Aye-Ayes have great hearing with big moveable ears.
3) Aye-Ayes use their long finger and echolocation to find food.
Books are great. Great for kids, great for adults, great for kids to read with adults. We’re big believers of that in our house and thanks to the help of friends and family, we’ve been able to build up a great little library for Oliver. We’re glad to have added Terri Tatchell’sĀ Aye-Aye Gets Lucky to our shelves. And now, we can’t wait to see what comes next in the series of Endangered and Misunderstood stories.
At 31 pages, Aye-Aye Gets Lucky is a real sit-down together read for kids and parents. And for older kids, it’s a chance to really dive in and work through an entire story that includes real development and lessons. If you’ve got a child in your life that loves animals or loves books or loves pictures or loves all of those things, I highly recommend adding Aye-Aye Gets Lucky to your holiday shopping list. It’s entertaining and educational. And it’ll be a hit!
Check out Aye-Aye Gets Lucky now on Amazon HERE or visit your local bookstore to see if they have it in stock, or if they can get it for you!
ps. Thanks to Ollie’s mama for snapping photos of us while we sat down to read the book!
