Oh, the wonders of Polo. If you are a regular reader of the site, you know how we extol the virtues of Polo, to the ends of the earth and back. So I was more than excited to get these books, and for our 3 day road trip to the States no less! Talk about the heavens opening up, and dropping Polo from the sky, blessed are we.
In Polo and Lily, the story starts with Polo bumbling around his house for the day, doing all that Polo does, gardening (love), eating his veggies from his garden (double love) fishing etc. Then whoomp! A new friend crashes into his tree house! Adventures ensue.
Initially, I was disappointed in the size of the book, not only the physical size but the fact that it is close to only 1/3 in volume of what the original two are page-wise. (32 pages in this vs 80 in The Runaway Book) But there is a silver lining to every cloud, and in this case, it would be my daughters little three year old hands. She is able to handle these Polo books so much better than the older, larger ones. With The Runaway Book, she had to be sitting on a couch that supported her legs out straight so she could rest it on them, and she had a hard time holding it up to read. This size, and the length of the tale, is absolutely perfect for the younger set.
I would ask though, that if they do have to be shorter….please just publish more faster! I can’t wait for the next two, I think that I am worse than the kids.
I am pretty sure the Polo and Lily was published before The Many Adventures of Polo and definitely before The Runaway Book. I think we are getting them in North America out of order. The 2 new ones (the dragon and magician) have also been out in Europe for some time and at the end of The Runaway Book, the dragon is one of the characters who shows up at Polo’s house.
I was disappointed at first that the new books were shorter and with less adventures, but they have grown on me. They are still very sweet, just not as awesome as the other ones simply because there is less content. As you mentioned though, easier for younger children to read independently.