Children's Book Review: Escape to California

Escape to California (Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures, 12) by Jeff Brown and Macky Pamintuan, August 26, 2014. 128 pages. Published by HarperCollins. Source: publisher.

Flat Stanley is back to save the day in the twelfth exciting Worldwide Adventures chapter book, just in time to celebrate his fiftieth anniversary! This time, we follow Flat Stanley as he explores San Francisco, California. The Lambchops are on a family vacation to San Francisco. But when Stanley saves a girl from barreling down one of San Francisco's steep hills in her wheelchair, he's shocked to find that she's actually been looking for him. The girl, Lily, is trying to perform an amazing trick that no one has done before—escaping from Alcatraz prison—and she needs Stanley's help! Can the famous flat boy help in this sticky situation?

First Sentence:

The hills in San Francisco were so steep that all the parked cars looked as if they were going to roll away.

Would you believe if I told you that I read this one because it was the only book, of mine, downstairs at the time. Sure you would because the is a book-nerd thing to do. Like I said, it was down there and I was not feeling into trudging up the stairs to pick up one of the books I had been reading at the time. Turns out that was an okay move because this was a pretty interesting and super fast read.

Even though Escape to California, book twelve in the Flat Stanley's Adventures, is aimed at reading 7-10 years of age I still found this to be quite the fun read. Also, two of the (under tens) kids my sister babysits enjoyed this one as well (as I sent it off with my sister because I thought it be a good fit for them. So, yeah, I can say that between the story and writing, there are plenty of things for young readers to enjoy with this one. But chief among all, I think they will enjoy reading about Flat Stanley and Lily, the amazing, girl he assists in her goal.

I really liked how the whole book was about Lily and her quest to escape for Alcatraz and to show the world how amazing she was...wheelchair included. I feel like I could totally mess up this review, yet, I would like to say that I really enjoyed reading about Lily and how she didn't let being wheelchair bound hold her back from being incredible. I thought it was interesting, and really nice, to see such a strong character like her because she was fearless.
   I don't know about you, but I cannot think of a single book that I've read about a wheelchair bound character. Which when you think about it is, well, quite sad. Yet again, I really liked how Lily was portrayed in Escape to California because she was a great character; plus, who doesn't like seeing the main character of a book, in this case, Flat Stanley, pushed back to side-character status.

In the end, what rally makes this an interesting read, other than the writing and humor, is the story of a girl trying to share her brand of greatness with the world. Story-wise, this is a wonderful read for the under ten crowd.

Final Verdict: Escape to California- An all-around fun read with two great characters surrounded by wonderful family.

Escape to California earns

This book was received in exchange for an honest review.