The Heroes of Googley Woogley

by: Dalton James

Published by: Outskirts Press

Reviewed by Erin Clyburn

The Heroes of Googley Woogley, written by seven-year-old Dalton James, proves a tricky book to review. Negatively reviewing a book by a child may come across as cruel and bullying. He’s just a child, after all. Why wouldn’t anyone want to praise his creativity? On the other hand, positively reviewing this book would be, well, to lie.

Heroes, at all of 19 pages, is the story of Spaceboy Pete and his dad, Spaceman James, who journey to the planet of Googley Woogley to stop the evil alien SooDonts from stealing candy from the kindly SooDos. The story is accompanied by Dalton’s illustrations.

Don’t get me wrong—The story is cute. It has a sweet message that children can benefit from (helping the less fortunate). The illustrations are also cute—the colorful, crude drawings of a seven-year-old.

The problem is in its marketing, essentially that the book exists in published form at all. Simply put, this book is an example of parental pride at its worst. Its publication (Outskirts is a self-publishing outfit) is Dalton’s parents saying, “My child wrote and illustrated this story. Yes, it’s just like the stories every seven-year-old creates, but unlike your child’s stories, we expect you to pay $10.95 to read our child’s.” To sell this story is to suggest that it is at all out of the ordinary, which it is not. It is not special or unusual. You will not read this story and think, “Really? This child is only seven?”

All children creates stories with unique characters and plots—it’s the workings of a child’s imagination. I’d wager most everyone wrote little books just like these when they were young, and it is insulting that Dalton’s parents expect readers to spend money to read their child’s story (even if a tiny portion of the proceeds do go to his school).

Encourage your child to create. Encourage them to become authors, or to pursue whatever ambitions they may have. Let them write and illustrate books, bind them, and share them with friends and family members. But don’t expect to make a profit from them. And readers, don’t buy into this shameful stunt.

Armchair Interviews says: This reviewer is expressing the idea that as book buyers, we need to understand what we’d get for $10.95—and we might already have it from our own children.