Book Review: "Danny Defeats Asthma" by Debi Gueron

⭐⭐⭐ out of 5

This is my second book using my Kindle Unlimited subscription and as with all of my other book reviews recently, this book is starting off with the full five stars and I'm always hopeful that I'll finish reading and reviewing with them all firmly in place too.

Let's get started.

First off, I'm wondering what kinda age this book has been written for... it says 4-12 years but that is a huuuuge age range, maturity and ability as well as interest and knowledge.  As it's only 35 pages long, I'm guessing that it's aimed at the younger end of the suggested reading age though.

I'm even more confused now... it's definitely aimed at the younger part of the age range, but a 4 year old listener wouldn't understand the word "unique" on the first page, but it was first published in America so maybe they have different vocabulary teaching over there?  I won't knock off the first star yet, but it's already decidedly wobbly after only one page.

I love how the author has explained Danny needing his inhaler!

Oh dear... it feels like the author has used Gilly wearing glasses against him which would make youngsters needing to wear glasses feel self-conscious and upset about having to wear them... they might even take them off when they are at school so that they aren't bullied, purely because of what the teacher in this book has said, so that wobbly first star has now fallen off so we're down to four stars now.

The next couple of pages have been better, so it's a solid 4 star review so far.

Vocabulary issue again on page 13 - a 4 year old wouldn't understand the word "imaginary" and the play worlds they create are very real to them.  It's definitely a book for the younger child, but a few of the word choices would confuse and/or frustrate them.

Yet another vocab issue on page 16 - a 4 year old wouldn't have a clue what an "instructor" is and they would be picking their nose and eating it in frustrated boredom by now.

The author seems to be using words for a 12 year old in a book aimed at 4 year olds, which means that it's not suitable for either which unfortunately means another star is coming off, so we're now down to 3 stars.

I like that the illustrator has used such a wide variety of skin tones in the pictures... that's so refreshing!

It's potentially dangerous to have Gilly stealing Danny's inhaler in case it gives the young child ideas about doing it "for fun, just to see what would happen" to someone they know, without realising or understanding just how dangerous that could be to the asthmatic child or adult.

Yet more vocab that's too advanced - "admired" on page 33 and "faithful" as well as "bravery" and "ashamed" on page 34!

Just finished the book and other than several word choices and having such a huge age range for the age of this book, it's a pretty decent book... just needs different word choices on the majority of the pages as well as maybe aiming it at 4-6 year olds rather than 4-12 year olds is all.