The Mess Detectives and the Case of the Lost Temper

"The Mess Detectives and the Case of the Lost Temper" is a children's book, written by Karen Poth, and published by Zonderkidz. This book is a beginning reader book that uses simple sentences for new readers. After reading this book,  I would say that there may be a few challenging words for early readers, and they may need a little help reading this book on their own.

In this book, "Veggie Tales" characters Bob the tomato and Larry the cucumber are detectives and hot on the trail of a door slamming suspect. Larry, acting as his usual silly self, makes Bob more and more aggravated as they stake out the Carrot house, trying to catch the door slammer. As Bob gets increasingly frustrated with Larry, he eventually loses his temper. Larry points out that Bob has lost his cool, and Bob agrees, and that's pretty much the end of it.

I really thought that this lesson could have been much more of a teaching children to lean on God when they are feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, or aggravated. I think that this book missed the opportunity to make that point. My children, even though they are young, struggle with their tempers, and I really feel like Larry and Bob could have gone into how Bob could calm down, and pray or lean on God in order to calm down. Instead, Larry just points out that Bob has lost his temper, and Bob basically says, "Yeah, you're right".

I thought the story was cute, but really think they missed the mark on the one thing that "Veggie Tales" always does - tying the moral of the story into Biblical examples. I would give this book a 2.5/5. Cute, but not the quality I would expect from the "Veggie Tales" characters.

FTC DISCLOSURE: I Received this book for free through the Book Look Blogger Program in exchange for my honest review.