My 6-year old and I read this one together, and most days I had to beg her to continue reading so that we could finish it. She enjoyed the first few chapters, but quickly lost interest and wanted to read something else. I wasn't terribly interested myself to find out exactly what was going to happen either. Perhaps an older child would find it more enjoyable.

Weirdly dark. I thought that with the style of the illustrations, this felt like it was for a younger crowd. But the humans in the story are based on real people who all died in the Arctic where the story takes place. Sometimes this is adventure, other times it’s bleak, sometimes a character tells a rambling story... I don’t know what to make of this book.

Freya and Zoose Is the story of a penguin and a mouse heading off to see the world.. They do not start out as friends, but through twists and turns along their adventure their friendship grows. This story was entertaining at times and an easy to read children’s book, but something was missing for me and I just didn’t really get into the book as I’d hoped I would.
Because I am only giving a 3 star review, I won’t be posting it on Goodreads, Twitter my blog.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s for this review copy, my opinions are my own.

At the start, this seems like a fairly standard, innocent adventure story. Freya and Zoose are complete opposites who, through random mischance, must find a way to get along. At first, it's just a matter of more pleasant travel. Then, through misadventure and near death experience, they learn to work together and even appreciate one another's company. This is all cute, a touch quirky, but entirely expected of a book for young readers. It takes increasingly dark turns as they travel deeper into the arctic and their human counterparts begin to fail. While the ending has a hopeful tone, it's not the tidy, positive conclusion you'd expect from a book for small children.

When I came across the book, Freya and Zoose by Emily Butler, I found the cover to be delightful, well drawn with vibrant colors. The book details on the back cover also drew me in as well as the black and white drawings by Jennifer Thermes. The book jacket blurb touted “full of wonder and whimsy”. Another source touted it as humorous, fun with a side of education. I was hooked ~ what else to do but read it? I could just imagine the adventures they would have!

I found this book to be well written, humorous at first but the story changes and becomes much darker with a strong sub-theme of death in the middle and later parts of this story. I wasn’t expecting that but I should have as the book synopsis very briefly reference this book was based on Andree’s Hot Air Balloon expedition. Next time, I will check out the references (albeit however small in a book blurb) and I encourage you all to do so as well!

I found the part of this book about Freya’s and Zoose’s friendship to be delightful, funny and a joy to read. The author did a superb job for this part of the book. Sadly, this is not the case for the full story. Let me let me explain why ….

First, I found this story to have two themes – the first being the developing friendship of Freya and Zoose. The second theme is the strong sub-theme of death that begins to really be noticed within the middle and ending of the story. The two stories don’t mix well, at least not in my opinion.

Secondly, I don’t believe the topic of death was handled well within this story. I firmly believe that when a controversial or touchy topic is written into the plot of a children’s book, it needs to be addressed fully and followed up with information woven into the story to help young readers explore, learn about and process the topic that is being discussed. In my opinion, this did not fully occur within this story.

Thirdly, I find it appalling that the book’s professional synopsis and some of the top professional reviews glossed over and did not address the darker themes of this book in their marketing of this book. I most assuredly would not use the descriptive terms “charming, delightful, humorous” to describe the sub-theme of death.

Lastly, I strongly suspect that this book most likely will not appeal to children ages 9-12 but more likely to children ages 6-8 ( ie the portion of Freya and Zoose’s friendship) and I certainly cannot recommend children of that age reading this story.

Having shared the above, I will not rate this book or post it on my review sites. I encourage each of you reading this to make your own decisions on this book. Thank you.

I received this book for free. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are my own. Thank you to Emily Butler, Crown Books for Young Readers and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This reluctant friendship adventure will keep readers guessing right until the last page. Emily Butler looks like an author to keep an eye on! Can't wait to talk about this with my students.

This was a cute story. The penguin (Freya) and mouse (Zoose) become unlikely friends after finding themselves stranded. The story moved along at a good pace and I think children will enjoy reading about Freya's and Zoose's adventures.