Book Review: Commander Toad and the Dis-Asteroid by Jane Yolen (Commander Toad #4)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: A non-scary science fiction picture book

Cons: None for me

The Bottom Line:

Commander Toad to

The rescue with…beans?  More fun

With crew of Star Warts

Not Reading This Book Would be a Dis-Asteroid

There aren’t many genre picture books, or at least they aren’t super popular.  One of the rare exceptions in the science fiction genre is Commander Toad.  I’ve been enjoying rereading these books recently, and Commander Toad and the Dis-Asteroid proves to be another fun addition to this series.

Commander Toad and his crew on board the Star Warts are about ready to leave the headquarters of Star Fleet when they are given their new mission.  It seems that Star Fleet has received a distress call from an asteroid somewhere between Jupiter and Mars.  However, the distress call doesn’t quite make sense.  The call seems to be requesting beans.  Armed with many kinds of beans, Commander Toad heads out to see what is happening.

They arrive to find the asteroid completely covered in water with pigeons flying over the surface.  One of them lands and tries to communicate the problem, but he is speaking Pigeon Toad.  Will Commander Toad be able to understand and fix the problem?

This is such a fun book.  While there is definitely some danger and a real problem that needs to be solved, this is the least scary problem the crew has encountered to date.  So if you have a little one who is super sensitive, this might be a good book to read.  The story moves along at a decent pace as well, with the detours being lots of fun.

As always, this is a book full of puns.  Even if kids don’t get them all, their parents will love them.  One or two are even explained for the kids.

Bruce Degen once again provides wonderful illustrations.  His pictures provide some laughs all on their own, especially with some hidden gags early in the book.

These are classified as easy reader books, and outside a few names or titles (Lieutenant springs to mind), I don’t see any of the words in this book being a problem.  And if parents are helping their kids read, there will be no problem at all.

So be sure to pick up Commander Toad and the Dis-Asteroid.  You and your kids will enjoy this science fiction tale.