Home is Never Far Away
Shari Gerson
Illustrations by Athens Springer
Athina Publishing

Oliver the cat is an adventurer who wants to go out and explore the world while his mistress is away from the house. He finds beauty, fun and lots to do. Oliver falls asleep and awakens to discover that he cannot find his way home in the dark. With the help of a wise friend Oliver soon returns home where he finishes the night in his own little bed.

An enchanting book, "Home is Never Far Away" sure to bring delight to children, and especially to those who like cats. Illustrations done by Athens Springer are wonderful. I am sure this artist must have first hand knowledge of cats. The cat on the head is one I especially identify with … and have often experienced in my own house!

"Home is Never Far Away" is written rhyming couplets, which should be especially appealing to small kiddies. This is a fine little book with good potential for classroom 'free reading' time.

My only problem with "Home is Never Far Away" is: the format is difficult. To open the file(s) entailed clicking on the icon and watching my screen fill with myriad html file icons. I believe this would be confusing to a youngster wanting to read the book alone. I persevered, found an icon which led to the whole book and read. However for kiddies I do not think this is the best approach and would suggest a format in which clicking on the icon would produce an open book type document. As a teacher I would find this cumbersome in the classroom.

I found too that when I tried to corral all those icons and put them into a folder: I could click them open and read text, but the pictures had disappeared. I personally don't want my screen covered over in a swarm of icons in order to let my own kiddies read the book, and believe other parents and/or teachers may have this same feeling. Difficult for young children to navigate the icons, middle grades and older siblings will have no problem helping their younger charges.

Lovely book