Although I would hesitate passing this on to some of my kids, I really enjoyed my first adventure with Mrs. Frogbottom. Her magic map took us to Iceland, and the “Frobottom Facts” dispersed in special boxes throughout the book complemented the story nicely and fed my desire to travel to Iceland myself some day. I like books that help me learn about the world as they entertain.

My concern with sharing this with a kiddo (and why I won’t have this one live in my home) is that it sometimes felt difficult to parse what is real and what is not. No I love Narnia and The Shire enough to know that mystical creatures alone are not enough to discredit a story. However, in this one we learn about the strong superstitious Icelandic culture of not wanting to disrupt elves believed to live among them (i.e., behind small doors throughout the land). I will exercise a touch of caution because much of the story does present facts, so this fictional aspect invades our world much more than other stories that are entirely make-believe. I don’t want my kids starting to think that they need to be fearful of mischevious, revengeful, imaginary creatures that live in cracks in trees and near rocks in our neighborhood. I also don’t want them thinking, “An elf stole it!” every time they lose something.

Trolls also were featured in this one, and the mild scariness was 100% appropriate for the reading level.

Other than the strong elvish presence, there is much to like. The kids respect their teacher well enough, and although they don’t always agree they learn to get along. However, I’d just make sure my kid can handle separating truth from superstition before putting this one in my little readers’ hands. The reading level is pretty accessible, as the image below displays for you to see for yourself if it’s the right level for you little reader.