Oliver and the Seawigs (A Not-So-Impossible Tale) Hardcover – July 22, 2014

See full review @ The Indigo Quill . blogspot . comI received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Oliver Crisp has lived quite an adventurous life at a very young age. His parents are explorers, and they have decided that it's time to settle down. However, a group of mysterious islands have made their way into the body of water that surrounds their home, and Oliver's parents must explore them right away! Suddenly, Oliver's parents go missing...and so do the islands! In this entertaining tale, Reeve and McIntyre introduce the perfect hybrid between graphic novel and middle-grade chapter book that will charm and amuse the whole family! When I first received this book, I had no idea what a "seawig" was. I thought it was some kind of sea creature that the author had made up. I was most pleasantly surprised when I discovered what a "seawig" was just that! A wig...made from the sea! Add a nearsighted mermaid, some rudely sarcastic seaweed, and enough sea monkeys to fill a sea, and you have Oliver and the Seawigs. This book is so many levels of cool that I ran out and bought myself a copy! This is the perfect book for the child transitioning from picture books to chapter books. They will enjoy illustrations on almost every page, and the lines are spaced out enough that they will breeze through the book in no time. The entire layout and design is esthetically pleasing and easy for young eyes to look at. It reminded me a lot of Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck. The storyline and artwork is embellished with levels of creativity that will keep the reader turning pages with anticipation. I. love. this. book. I cannot stress how much I love this book. I've already recommended it to several people. I'm sure that it's release here in the US will vie for several awards (deservingly so!).

My six year old couldn't put it down! Slowly walking around the house and to the car with her nose in the book are good signs that she was enjoying herself, I think.

A very fun, adventurous romp of a story filled with rambling islands, mischievous sea monkeys and a far-sighted, tone deaf mermaid. This easy chapter book is filled with fun illustrations and short chapters, perfect for beginning independent readers or as a read aloud. The sheer silliness and fun in this book makes this perfect for grades K-3.Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the free digital copy I received in exchange for an honest review.

Great story and the book was well made. Came with an attractive cover/artwork. My children loved the book

My 7 year old daughter really enjoyed this book - she read it and enjoyed the world created. Beautiful book. Fun story. Highly recommend!

Title: Oliver and the SeawigsAuthor: Philip ReeveIllustrator: Sarah McIntyrePublisher: OxfordRandom House Children'sYear: 2013Pages: 200[Disclaimer: I was provided with an ARC (advance readers copy) via NetGalley in exchange for my fair and unbiased review of Oliver and the Seawigs. I have in no way been compensated or asked to provide a positive review. Just honesty.]I am glad that I am rather frequently asked by publishers to review children's literature. In this way, I am introduced to new authors that I may not otherwise know about or hear of. I am also introduced to illustrators who make beautiful drawings and or painting. One of my favorite classes in graduate school was the one where we did nothing but read children's books and literature.Oliver and the Seawigs is a fun, whimsical book written for upper elementary to junior high students. I suspect, however, that even senior high students and adults will enjoy and appreciate the fast paced action, light-hearted fun, and witty humor of this book. It's filled with plenty of puns, alliterations, and jokes along the way--and rambling islands, talking birds, sarcastic seas, sea monkeys, mermaids, and hallowed shallows. As a teacher, I enjoy when authors make fun use of words and invite the readers to think their way through a story. Words are great fun and Reeve did a wonderful job making his enjoyment of words fun for the readers.As I noted above, I read an ARC. I downloaded through NetGalley into Adobe Digital Editions and attempted to read the book using my Nook. I was very disappointed that the graphics heavy book did not function at all on my Nook. In fact, it crashed my Nook many times before I simply gave up and read the book entirely on ADE. Even in ADE the book pages turned very slowly and at times caused the program to be unresponsive for several minutes. This was unfortunate. I don't know if this is a problem just with the ARC or if this is an inherent problem, but it was my experience.Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book and these technical glitches in no way took away from the enjoyment of the story and my pleasure in reading it. I think I would prefer to have a nice hard bound copy as opposed to the digital copy, for reasons mentioned above and I hope that my digital experience was my own and not shared by other readers.In some ways the book reminded me of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket--in this case, one young child working through a challenging adventure and attempting to solve relatively complex problems along the way. Furthermore, the language is not softened for readers who may well find themselves in need of a dictionary to work through some of the larger words in the book (e.g., crotchety, feted, doubloons). Of course they are not mountainous words, but still there may be some challenges for some students and other readers. And of course I believe this to be a good thing. One of the best ways to learn how to read and how to think through books is when a reader is forced, at times, to look up a word in a dictionary. Even now, after 40+ years of reading, this is a frequent practice of mine.The artwork is spectacular. The version I read was mostly pencil drawings with a very small palette of color (blue & black). The artwork was very well done and complimented the story nicely. After looking at the web pages of the illustrator, I also see how the artwork reflects her personality in any number of ways. The artwork only enhanced the story and in no way detracted from it.The story is simple. The story is short (and the illustrations, sometimes taking up two pages, make the book go by rather quickly). The story is fun. I don't think there is a lot of suspense for older readers who will find the story somewhat predictable and cookie-cutter, but younger readers will probably find it somewhat suspenseful and scary at times. (Maybe.) I highly recommend the book and hope at some point to include it in my own classroom (there are some extras at the illustrator's web page, see above for link).5/5 stars

Assolutamente consigliato!La storia è originale e i disegni sono meravigliosi!Di sicuro leggero anche gli atri titoli di Reeve illustrati da Sarah!

Review from Orlaith (8) "Oliver and The Seawigs is one of my favourite books in the world. I really like the characters, especially the sea monkeys and Iris the Mermaid. I also love the bad guy, Stacey de Lacey, he's really funny. I also like Sarah's illustrations, they're really funny and they work really well to tell the story. I really like the way she draws the seawigs, the sea monkeys and the mermaids. I think that Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve rule."

Non la prova migliore dell''autore... ma divertente. Illustrazioni indovinate. Tre stelle e mezza non si può dare, quindi... soddisfatto dell''acquisto

I heard the author talking about this book on the radio, and he said he wanted to capture the fell of the old Noggin the Nog books, and as I was a big fan as a child I decided to give this a try for my kids.When it arrived I wasn't disappointed, it's well bound and beautifully illustrated throughout, so looked forward to reading it with my youngest kids.We've not finished it yet, but I'm finding the story enjoyable, and the kids love it !!I would recommend this book to anyone with primary school age kids.

My son loves this book and can't seem to put it down. Value for money and the prints are good size.