Independent book review: The Funny Adventures of Little Nani

The Funny Adventures of Little Nani

By Cinta Garcia de la Rosa

Cinta Garcia de la Rosa remembers what it means to be a child.  Her book, The Funny Adventures of Little Nani, proves this not only through entertaining and hilariously preposterous stories, but by engaging children in the creative process of her book.

Little Nani is a young girl with an irresistible and irrepressible positive outlook on everything that happens. She derives infectious joy from helping other people — or at least, trying to help.

At some point just before the action of the book begins, Little Nani has ordered a magic wand over the Internet. It arrives, and it has power; but Nani, as a child, does not have the patience to read the instruction manual or go through the online training program. So, she does not learn the spells properly. Thus, the results of her efforts are always a little different from what she intended, or indeed, what the objects of her help ever wanted.

With Little Nani, Garcia demonstrates fine craftsmanship as a writer and a storyteller. Her professionalism as a writer is demonstrated in the care that shows in the prose, and in the fine colour illustrations by Almudena Romero. 

The book comprises 10 stories about Little Nani: turning her friends into ostriches, meeting the world’s fastest turtle, getting a complete set of the novels of Jane Austen for her friend, the horse.

Where Garcia goes beyond what most writers do is firmly rooted in her understanding of children. What do children want to do when they read, watch or hear a story they like? They want to create more of it, of course. Garcia gives them the opportunity to participate in the creation of the Little Nani legend: every chapter has at least one spot where the author invites the reader to draw their own illustrations of the events of the story.

The only criticism I can offer is that it could have used one more edit. Garcia’s choice of prepositions is odd in some places. It may be a European thing, because it’s never wrong or illogical — it’s just not quite the choice of someone whose first language is English. But I cannot fault Garcia for that.

To sum up, kudos to Cinta Garcia de la Rosa for creating a wonderful children’s book that not only entertains, but also engages the audience in telling the story.

Disclaimer: Cinta Garcia de la Rose, like me, is a member of Independent Authors International, a cooperative organization of writers unaffiliated with any major commercial publisher.

Find The Funny Adventures of Little Nani on Amazon
Visit Cinta Garcia de la Rosa's blog.