Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Blume Rifken - Scarecrow Finds a Friend
Everyone needs a friend, and friends are especially nice in situations when one needs help with something he/she cannot achieve by themselves. This is what happens in Scarecrow Finds a Friend, a children’s book by Blume Rifken with illustrations by Carl W. Wenzel.
Basic Contents of This Book:
Scarecrow is happy that the Fall season is in full swing. He is enjoying life, and one day he starts to dream about a past experience when he met a nice witch named Tally. Scarecrow was granted a wish by Tally, and Scarecrow decided he would like to dress up and go trick- or- treating for Halloween. Tally grants the wish and Scarecrow has the time of his life.
Suddenly, Scarecrow is jolted out of his sleep by none other than Tally. She was worried because she was having trouble flying. She had granted so many wishes, that her own power to fly was being affected. She needed someone to help her.
Scarecrow had an idea. He knew that Thanksgiving was coming soon and that meant the family would be eating a Thanksgiving turkey. Every turkey has a wishbone, and Scarecrow knew if he could get his hands on the wishbone, it might be useful for granting Tally her wish to be able to fly once more. In order to achieve his plan, Scarecrow asked Tally to pull out some of his straw. He knew this would get the attention of the children, they would take him inside to replace his straw, and he would be able to grab the wishbone.
Scarecrow does get taken into the house and he does get his stuffing replaced, but the kids take him back outside before he has a chance to get his hands on the wishbone. He and Tally are very concerned when suddenly, a strong wind strikes, knocking Scarecrow all over the place and shaking loose some of his stuffing. Out of nowhere, the wishbone appears: the kids had apparently used it to re- stuff Scarecrow. Grabbing on opposite sides and pulling, the wishbone snaps. Tally has the longer piece and thus her wish is granted. But Scarecrow quickly points out that even if he had the longer piece, his wish would have also been to help Tally regain the ability to fly. She would have had her wish granted regardless.
Final Thoughts:
Scarecrow Finds a Friend is a 32- page children’s book aimed at the four to eight year- old crowd. This large, 8” by 10” size book is hardcover bound and it features the common storyline of friendship. In this instance, one character befriends another by granting a wish, and the receiver of the wish then returns the favor by helping his friend get her own wish granted, even though, unlike his friend, he doesn’t have any magical powers to grant wishes.
This children’s book is written to appeal to elementary school age children and the story it presents includes a larger number of sentences and a little more plot to follow than many other children’s books. A young child would grow impatient with the number of words, but they seem just about right for the target age group. There is enough here to challenge the skills of elementary school age children without overwhelming them, so the book definitely earns points in this area.
As for the story itself, it does offer a nice, feel- good, important-lesson-to-learn message about helping a friend in need who has befriended you in the past. There is one small problem, however, that I have with the story. Toward the end, the logic of the story gets a little fuzzy when the Scarecrow suddenly discovers the wishbone mixed in with his own straw. He had been in the house and was getting his straw replaced, left the house, and then a strong wind strikes and blows a wishbone right out of him. How, I ask, could a wishbone make its way into the Scarecrow’s body? The kids were stuffing him with straw. How did the wishbone from the turkey makes its way into the straw, which then made its way into the Scarecrow’s body? A little more realistic twist to the plot would have made this part of the story better.
Illustrations in this book are pretty good, but they don’t offer the all- out splash of colors like often found in other children’s books. The drawings in this book are all situated on a white background and they feature colors like brown, yellow, blue, green, and purple. The colors are a little more subdued, but they fit the mood of the story.
Overall, Scarecrow Finds a Friend is a good children’s book with a positive message, good illustrations, and a writing style that challenges children in the target age group. I would have found a better, more realistic way to get the wishbone from the turkey into the Scarecrow’s hands. But Scarecrow Finds a Friend is still a good book that most elementary school- age children will find to their liking.
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