ARC Review: Mara the Space Traveler – An Leysen

Rating: 3/5 🌟🌟🌟

Genre: Children’s Fiction

Review:

I love illustrations and I enjoy children’s books a lot. So when I saw this book with the beautiful cover, of course I was enchanted. Mara the Space Traveler is about a little girl with a rich imagination and dreams of being an astronaut.

The drawings were stunning and beautiful. I lingered on each page, enjoying the illustrations which were very vivid and colorful and would easily grab the attention of any child.

However, though the plot-line was simple, it was not as interesting as I expected it to be. The plot did not have as much excitement and impact as a story for children should have.

I read the story to a couple of children to gauge their reaction and their views. The children loved the drawings but the story bored them. In their opinion, the story was not as detailed as they wanted and had a plot holes, which annoyed them. They also found the segue from one scene to another confusing, the change in events too vague.

I gave this book 3 stars mostly for the illustrations which were exceptional. With a better, more detailed plot-line this book would have been perfect.

Pub Date: 26 Jun 2020

*Thanks to Netgalley & Clavis Publishing for the ARC.

Synopsis: Mara’s biggest wish is to become an astronaut — to discover new planets. Sometimes dreams and wishes come true . . . She lands on the most beautiful planet she has ever seen. But the planet is in trouble and only Mara can help. A wonderful space adventure about a small girl with big dreams and a big heart. For astronauts and explorers ages 6 and up.