This is a Mini Book Review for SpongeBob Squarepants The Tour de Bikini Bottom by Scott Sonneborn, illustrated by Warner McGee for the LeapFrog Tag Reading System. Check out my review for LeapFrog Tag Reading System here.

My 4-year-old son, Caleb, is fan of SpongeBob Squarepants, whereas my feelings are pretty much ‘meh’ where they concern the Nickelodeon character.  In this 17-page story of The Tour de Bikini Bottom, Squidward is trying to win the Tour de Bikini Bottom, which is an underwater bicycle race.  In the meantime, SpongeBob and his friend, Patrick, are determined to help Squidward.  Unfortunately SpongeBob and Patrick hinder more than help, causing Squidward to have a lock on last place. Can Squidward overcome their ‘help’ to win the race?

This story features the voices of SpongeBob, Patrick, and cranky Squidward, which Caleb really enjoyed.  In addition, sound effects helped to bring the story to life.  Exploring the illustrations with the Tag pen also revealed some fun surprises.

The book starts out by giving the reader a Secret Racing Name. Caleb’s was Crazy Jellyfish and mine was Groovy Bamboo. Every few pages there was a game which quizzed the child on reading and comprehension.  The book would interact with the child by using their Secret Racing Name, ie, “Way to go Crazy Jellyfish!” At the end of the book, there were a various assortment of games geared to challenge the child at three different levels.  Unfortunately, this book is geared at 5 to 7-year-olds and although Caleb is beginning to read, he hasn’t mastered it enough yet to understand some of the rules of the games which taught things like how a silent ‘E’ can change a word, past and present verb tense, and reading.

In the end, Caleb is giving SpongeBob Squarepants The Tour de Bikini Bottom 10 stars out of 10 because he said he liked the story.  I’m giving it 7 Dancing Elephants out of 8 because though the story was okay, the games at the end were engaging.