A review of Warning: Failure to Buy This Book Could Result in Death or Serious Injury

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Warning: Failure to Buy This Book Could Result in Death or Serious Injury.

Mark Batty Publisher: New York, 2005.

Reviewed by my nephew Cedar Van Tassel, who is seven years old

This is a book about warning signs. The author wrote the book because he thought warning signs from other countries are neat. The book is to show people the signs that they see, which help people figure out what to do. They use pictures instead of words so you see what could happen.

For example, there is a picture of a wheelchair racing down a hill towards water. There must be sharks or other creatures down at the bottom of the hill. If you’re in a wheelchair and somebody let go of you, you would roll down the hill into the water and be eaten. Another sign says “Beware” and shows a car hitting a cow. There might be cows coming across the road and a car might hit them. Another picture looks like someone standing—we just see his legs—and some sort of saw or machine is coming towards the man’s knee. This sign warns you a saw might be coming and it might saw your leg off.

This book is good. I like it because there’s lots of things you’ve probably never seen. You can look at them and say, “I’ve never seen this sign before.”

The book might be better if there were words on the bottom that told you what the pictures are. The pictures would be more interesting if the people had eyes and you could see their hands. The colors are okay. If I drew these pictures I would use colors I thought people might be wearing.

I would recommend this book to someone who likes signs.

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Note: Cedar Van Tassel will enter the second grade at Southeast of Saline School in north-central Kansas next month. His past contributions to Vagablogging have included a book about God, a poem about monsters, and in informational science article about the natural world. He recently noted to this mother that his Uncle Rolf is “not an adult.”

Recent Vagablogging.net guest book reviews include Bill Jenkins’ review of Elliott Hester’s Adventures of a Continental Drifter, and Tom Davis’ review of Paul Theroux’s Dark Star Safari.

Posted by | Comments (2)  | July 28, 2006
Category: Travel Writing


2 Responses to “A review of Warning: Failure to Buy This Book Could Result in Death or Serious Injury

  1. Jamie Says:

    Wow, at just 7 your nephew’s already something else!! Perhaps he’ll follow in Uncle Rolf’s footsteps and be a writer as well.
    As for his insight on you not being an adult (and what a great comment!!); join the club! :~)

  2. Zoe Says:

    Hail Cedar! He continues to teach us all so much: he’s simple and succinct – and reminds me of how pretentious all us wannabe writers can sound. Sometimes we start thinking we are real “adults” and forget that we are, thankfully, perpetually “in the dot”.