Sky and Carey: The Fantastic Fort: Book Review

It’s no secret that we love being outdoors. We also love reading. Combine both of these activities, reading and being outside, and it’s good times. If the book we’re reading is about exploring the outdoors then we’re reaching a place of perfect happiness! I first heard about Sky and Carey: The Fantastic Fort while having a casual conversation with the illustrator Alex Brooke. Alex was quite secretive about this special project she was working on with author Tracey Badger which only helped in peaking my curiosity. As soon as the book was released, Tracey and Alex kindly sent me a signed copy to review and giveaway. No sooner did the book arrive in my home did it disappear! Eventually I discovered it’s whereabouts. It was in a corner of our home with my son, being read.

Sky and Carey: The Fantastic Fort is a story about the adventures of Sky and Carey. Sky and Carey are best friends, each with their own unique strengths and interests, and they are off to spend two weeks of their summer vacation at Lake Glad with Sky’s Aunt Joy. Aunt Joy has a special surprise from them; they’re going to build their very own fort! The girls spend their days working diligently to create a special fort and they name it Fort Fantastic. It truly is fantastic! As their time with Aunt Joy comes to an end there is one last adventure in store for Sky and Carey and they must to work together to succeed. I won’t spoil the ending for you.

There are many things that my children and I love about this book. The illustrations are fun and captivating. My children would linger on each page checking out the little critters and details tucked into each picture. My daughter loved that the illustrations were so colourful and done with watercolours. The writing is equally engaging as well as educational, but in a fun sort of way. The author writes to inspires children to embrace adventure and to be brave. I noticed that as we read the story my children were right there with Sky and Carey, adventuring along beside them. We also enjoyed that the setting of the book felt familiar to us. Both Tracey Badger and Alexandra Brooke are local to the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia and there are many things included in their book that we encounter fairly regularly on our adventures outside. Finally, at the end of the book there are several pages that offer parents and children ideas of things to do and talk about after reading the story. As a parent I always appreciate these helpful suggestions.

Sky and Carey: The Fantastic Fort is a lovely story about outdoor adventure, imagination, team work and bravery. I hope there will be a sequel so that we can join Sky and Carey on more adventures in the future. For more information about this book or to purchase a copy visit: Sky and Carey.

The giveaway: One lucky person can win a signed copy of Sky and Carey: The Fantastic Fort by leaving a comment at the end of this post. If you share this giveaway with your friends on social media post a second comment below stating “I shared this post on…(Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.)!” for a second entry.

The giveaway will close on Sunday, November 20th at midnight. Good luck!