Review of The pink planet and the blue planet

[Alissar Elissa]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The pink planet and the blue planet" by Fajer Jeragh.]

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2 out of 5 stars

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The Pink Planet and the Blue Planet by Fajer Jeragh is a somewhat entertaining children's story following the adventures and discoveries made by two friends as they explore their environment and beyond. It packs underlying themes of assimilating to one's environment while pushing the boundaries for movement beyond. This story follows a little girl with big dreams and ambitions who wants and seeks agency in her life to choose a place where she feels she belongs. We are taken alongside our main character in her journey of achieving these goals and watch as she struggles with the realities of stepping outside her familiar home in search of something exciting.

One of the strongest points I found in the story was the beautiful, expressive, and colorful illustrations accompanying each page. I found myself deeply interested in examining their contents, and my eyes were drawn to them as I flipped each page. The illustrations on locations 9, 17, and 25 were very fascinating to look at and conveyed different emotions.

However, I only found the illustrations to be very appealing and felt that the writing itself lacked such impact and pull. While I am not sure what the intended age range is for this book, I do not see any child under the age of 8 being immersed in this story for multiple reasons.

The writing was too long and complicated, with thoughts and characters being hard to follow. This made keeping track of all the different planets, names, and environments difficult to follow, and I found myself lost at multiple points in the story. I found the print itself to be unattractive, even for an adult reader. The paragraphs, being blocks of text with no change of font, size, color, or spacing, were not attractive or engaging to read. I also found the use of a double quotation mark at the beginning and end of each page of text a confusing addition to the story. It made dialogue hard to track, as some paragraphs ended with dialogue; therefore, there was a single quotation mark followed by a double, which I suspect would be confusing for a child reader who is still learning about punctuation and how to use it. Finally, I suspect that very few children would be motivated to read a text that was not visually appealing.

One thing to note: I read the story on a Kindle and must judge the print based on this, but I do not make assumptions about the physical version, as I do not know if the print is the same.

In terms of the story, while I did enjoy the pace of the plot unfolding, I did not enjoy the final message. I felt as though it was very rushed and was more of the main character being the clever one in the end while having to face little to no pushback from the other characters that she upset.

I also found one punctuation error.

I would rate the book a 2/5. The illustrations were enjoyable to look at and connect to the writing, which is why I gave it a 2, but the writing and plot themselves were weak and confusing, which is why I did not rate it higher. I would not recommend the story to anyone with a child under the age range of 8, but those around and higher might find it enjoyable.

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The pink planet and the blue planet
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Charles Benson]

A vivid visual journey overshadowed by dense prose—The Pink Planet and the Blue Planet sparks curiosity through its stunning illustrations, especially on pages like 9 and 25, but the storytelling feels weighed down by overly complex language and formatting choices that may lose younger readers. It’s a story with heart and imagination, but one I wish had embraced clarity and accessibility as boldly as it did color.