Fernando’s Fun-tastic Friends

Tina Powell’s short but rich story explores concepts such as welcoming a new friend to school, making healthy lifestyle choices, and having balance in daily activity to ensure one is active. Fernando’s new friends try to get him on board with healthy snack choices and activities, but he only wants to eat French fries and watch Frankenstein movies. His friends, wanting to spend time with him, begin to make the same sedentary choices and continue to do so until Fernando realizes that they had all become just like him. He envisions an unhealthy future and makes attempts to get them all off the couch. When his attempts fail, he has the idea to put on his Frankenstein mask and that gets them active! All of their games were henceforth Frankenstein themed, and Fernando (or “Fernandostein”) was the first to sign up for the fitness club at school.

Jenny Campbell’s crisp and colourful illustrations accompany this fun story with a great message for young learners. In envisioning the activities of Fernando and his friends, they reflect the depth of the story well.

Fernando’s Fun-tastic Friends sends a great message about making healthy and active choices. As well, the use of “f” sounds through the book make it more fun and would serve to assist young learners with their literacy learning. Powell has used other letter sounds in her writing, including Peter’s Poofect Pet and Samantha’s Silly-icious Sandwiches.