Sofa Spotlight - Ronaldo: The Phantom Carrot Snatcher, Maxine Sylvester

It’s not often that I read children’s books - well not without a child to read them to. So reading this was a little bit of an adventure in its own right. For me the sign of a good book is if you feel sad at the end that you have to say goodbye to the characters. Because in the time you’ve spent reading the book they become good friends and it’s always hard to say goodbye to friends. 

First of all, let me be really upfront. Maxine Sylvester kindly sent me a copy of this book to review here and in return I hope to give her a fair and honest review. 

So on with the show.

The main plot line is about a young reindeer called Ronaldo and his best friend Rudi. Ronaldo is a very talented flying reindeer and is all set to win the Golden Snowflake for best flyer at his school. But then he meets Ernie, a lost wolf cub, and he has to decide between winning the prize or sacrifice it and help Ernie find her family.

First of all I’d almost fallen in love with this book before I’d got to the story. At the front is a map of the world that Ronaldo and his friends live in. I love maps like these because they are almost a story in themselves. I think as a child I spent nearly as much time pouring over the maps of stories like The Chronicles of Narnia and imaging the characters I’d read about having their adventures and also creating new ones for them in my head. And this map had the same feel. And yes I spent a fair bit of time pouring over it and wondering what other adventures Ronaldo had got up to.

Underneath the storyline are some important life lessons being quietly taught. Friendship and loyalty are brought through in a very genuine way. Although Ronaldo clearly loves Rudi and also Ernie he has to battle his own selfishness to come through for his friends. Ronaldo’s feelings and internal battles are realistic to anyone not just children. My favourite lesson from this was what Ernie taught him - that “good friends make happier times brighter.” 

Humour is woven through the narrative beautifully as are the illustrations. Ronaldo, Rudi and Ernie are brought to life and are just as much fun to look at as to read about. And the tension is incredible! Right at the end I was on the edge of my seat wanting to find out what was going to happen. As I was reading it at this point someone tried to interrupt me and I had to tell them to wait because for me, right then, nothing was more important than getting to the end of that chapter to know for sure what was coming next!

One last thing that I thought was rather nice was that the vocabulary wasn’t limited. There were more complicated words that would stretch a child’s reading ability and in my mind that’s no bad thing.

So yes would definitely recommend this one. It’s a really fun book and I hope to meet up with Ronaldo in another of his adventures.