Title: Adventures with Ragweed: A Collection of Whimsical Tales

Author: Linda Lou Crosby

Illustrator: Andy Atkins

Genre: Young Adult, Children, Humor, Short Stories

Date Published: February 10, 2014

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About the Book

Whimsy – Humorous Tales of Adventure, Friendship and Outdoor Ventures For Young Adult Readers and those young at Heart

Adventures with Ragweed is a collection of humorous short stories filled with adventure and family themes.

Ragweed is a tribute to the whimsical part of each of us. Follow this young teen and her best friend, Marney as they travel to Mexico for a fishing trip, where the family is to shoot a pilot for a television show, instead, find themselves in an unexpected sea storm.

Laugh out loud as Ragweed takes on the tennis elite at the country club or attempts to rearrange their perfectly cut lawns.

Always one to learn new things, this young freckled face gal with the unruly blonde hair, builds a float, rides a horse and grows a garden – always getting into unintentional trouble and conning her friends to partake. Each task done with her own unique vies of the world.

Light Hearted and Funny

These stories are meant to entertain. It’s difficult to narrow it down to one specific genre as the book is a collection of short stories suitable for young adults as well as for an older crowd with a sense of humor. Family Relationships, Friendships, Essays and Humor are categories all presented within the pages of this book.

If you like the outdoors you might enjoy reading about Ragweed’s horse riding exploits or her compost-creating stunts. She spends a great deal of time playing sports and in the garden. Most of the stories are based on the author’s own experiences when she was a young adult but some of us know that inner youth tends to follow us into adulthood – so if you have similar backgrounds, these tales will make you grin.

Beautifully Illustrated

Each story in this humorous collection is beautifully illustrated. The pictures capture the character and facial expressions of the gals in these short stories and in our opinion add to the text. There is also an animated video on the author’s page that is worth watching. The artist tried to capture the fun-spirited character of Ragweed and when the pictures were put into film, the story came alive visually. It’s like a short cartoon.

Available on Amazon.

 

My Review

I received a free ecopy of this book for an honest review.

Ragweed is a girl whose family is wealthy and she often finds herself bored, which is not usually a good thing. When she gets bored, she tends to find trouble. This book is a collection of short stories about Ragweed and her adventures from starting her own garden to getting into mischief at school with her only friend, Marney.

The stories are funny and the focus of each story is described well. For example, when Ragweed and her classmates build a float, the float is easy to visualize because of the detailed description.

Many of the characters are interesting. Ragweed, of course, is the most interesting and unique person in these stories. I like how she got her nickname. In fact, there are two reasons for her nickname. The one thing that surprised me was when I found out that Ragweed was a senior in high school. She seemed much younger by her actions and in the way she was described.

A couple examples of other interesting characters are Tex Loveland, a neighbor who is a retired rodeo clown. He saves the day for Ragweed a couple times. And Penelope, a girl who Ragweed plays tennis against.

I definitely recommend this book for children as well as young adults.

 

About the Author