Guardian Angel Publishing (TOS Review)

Guardian Angel Publishing Home Page

"Guardian Angel Publishing is BOTH an eBook publisher and print publisher and will sell and distribute your book for sale online and in brick and mortar stores. [The books are available as e-book downloads, on CD-Roms, and in print versions.]

"Guardian Angel publishes books that encourage principles of positive growth for children, sharing and caring and healthy attitudes."--from the website

I'm not the best person to ask to review new picture books, especially those of the didactic sort, and especially any story told in rhyme (unless it's one of Virginia Kahl's Duchess books, or Madeline). I have too many biases about what I consider a "good" book. But it's hard to be objective about literary style or content when the first reaction to a book (especially an adorably-illustrated one like Rainbow Sheep) is "Aw, that's so cute." (Especially when it's one of my own kids saying that.)

It's also hard to give an overall review of a whole publishing house when it offers books by a number of different authors and illustrators. Guardian Angel sent the Review Crew several books to look at in e-book format, and they're all different. However, when you look at the writers' guidelines given on the website, you can see that a lot of their books do fall into certain categories:

"Guardian Angel Health & Hygiene - teach our children about health and hygiene. Our books instruct and explore healthy attitudes for kids of all ages. It will deal with all sorts of health issues affecting our children today.

"Guardian Angel Animals & Pets- picture books and story books about our furry and feathered friends, and personal books for the pets in our lives. They may be fiction or nonfiction stories of heroic, faithful, heartwarming stories about our animal friends. Don't forget we have great staff artists to create your angelic pet illustrations.

"Wings of Faith -faith-based storybooks and picture books for kids of all ages even twixt and tweens! They teach simple life lessons. Look at our Wings of Faith page for examples of upcoming series."

This is where I run into trouble. I am stubborn in my belief that what well-meaning adults think is good for children, or think children will like, doesn't always equal a wonderful book.

I wasn't quite alone in my lukewarm reaction, at least in the Treehouse. Crayons, our horse lover, got partway through a book about a boy and a horse before she didn't want to read any more. She did like Maybe We Are Flamingos, although I got kind of lost in sentences like "Mum said that it takes Flamingos a year or more to turn pink. Then we will stay pink because of the foods we eat, like diatoms, seeds, blue-green algae, crustaceans, and mollusks." I also didn't find a book about bones very readable: "Between knee and pelvis, / The femur resides. / Behind the “quad” muscles, / This longest bone hides." (Out-loud readability quotient is one of my markers for a good picture book.) Even Rainbow Sheep had some lines that gave me pause: "The sheep were pleasantly steaming in the sun."

I didn't get to look at Hamster Holidays: Noun and Adjective Adventures, although some others on the Crew did; I might have been more forgiving on that one just because I'm fond of rodents. There may be undiscovered gems in the company's list. And maybe it's just a matter of my preferring chocolate when a lot of people really like vanilla. Maybe. But in a time when some of the best children's books ever are falling victim to legislated dumpsterizing, and when we're struggling against the idea that children's books are just a pretty packaged commodity with a twenty-year lifespan (sort of like toys with pages), and that there's no difference between books about pink princess parties (not what Guardian Angel publishes) and Little Babaji, between I Like Myself (also not a Guardian Angel title) and A Hole Is to Dig...it's hard to know how or whether to promote books that are...adequate. Not harmful, and often pleasant, but not amazing either.

Does it seem unfair to criticize a company that has a stated aim of publishing stories that are heroic, faithful and heartwarming, that promotes sharing and caring and healthy attitudes? I may simply be harbouring a curmudgeonly, ungenerous, cantankerous attitude towards books that have already received various kinds of praise and awards. I purposely haven't looked yet at any other Crew reviews of this publisher, because I realize that my opinion may put me in the minority. But do check out the other reviews as they get posted, and have a look at the Guardian Angel site too if you want to encourage their values-based publishing.

Dewey's Disclaimer: These products were received free for review purposes. No other payment was made.