Review of “Queen Vernita Finds More Colors Than a Box of Crayons” by Dr. Dawn Menge

Score: 88+/100 (8.8+ out of 10)

Welcome to a section of the Land of Quails known as New England!

Here we rejoin Queen Vernita, the titular protagonist of Queen Vernita and the Land of Little Rain, as she commits to spending several months in this incredible and very different region, meeting new people, trying new things, and learning about all sorts of flora and fauna.

If you're expecting a typical plot-driven or even character-driven story, this probably isn't the book for you. If you're into that sort of thing, check out the author's other books: Dragon's Breath and the worthy sequel, Precious the Baby Dragon.

This just isn't that sort of book.

We think this book might best be described as an experiential novella. It's a short book about a foreigner/relative outsider being introduced to an unfamiliar place, getting to know new people and new things.

We think we asked this before, but... who really is Queen Vernita? Is she an actual royal queen or is her name just “Queen” like Queen Latifa? We ask because it kinda changes the plot and a bit of our feelings about the character. If she actually is a queen in the sense of being royalty, it makes a bit more sense. Assuming she is a queen, Vernita proves to be a loving ruler who—rather than sitting her high-tower giving orders—actually gets down and dirty with her people. She lives among them and learns about them.

However, this also begs the question... so who's ruling Vernita's kingdom? She's over here gallivanting and traveling all the time... who's making the executives decisions and tending to matters of the state? Does she have a viceroy or grand vizier tending to these things? Is she married? Is there a king somewhere running the day-to-day operations? Or is this a constitutional monarchy in which the queen really doesn't have to do much because a prime minister and/or a democratic government runs things? We kinda wish we knew so we wouldn't feel like Vernita wasn't fooling around and wasting her time while other sensitive, important matters are going unattended to in her kingdom. It really does seem like it.

It kinda seems like Queen Vernita isn't trying to advance a plot or serve a specific purpose. In that sense, she's a bit of a passive protagonist, albeit one who still participates in the more mundane activities happening in the book.

Speaking of those activities, they form the core of the book. Queen Vernita isn't about shaking things up. She's isn't about changing the game. She isn't about forcing an agenda or insisting on her own way. No. Actually, she's about leaving things the way that they are and appreciating them for how they are. That's something we can respect and appreciate about her character.

Throughout this book, Vernita travels to the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, learning the history and significance of it. She enjoys, rakes, and bags many of the autumn leaves of October. She visits a garden full of different trolls. Yes, really!

However, the story that we enjoyed the most in this book was probably Vernita going lobster hunting. There's something about it that was extra engaging. Maybe we were just hungry, but that particular story made us crave lobster! It's also kinda interesting to read how naive Vernita is about these creatures. Remember, she's not from here, she's a foreigner. So, she has trouble telling the difference between the lobsters and crabs.

Seeing the illustrations in a few other books this season has really made us appreciate the art/illustrations in this Queen Vernita series. No, they're not extraordinary. It's not going to hang in the Louvre, but you can tell that the author/illustrator put a lot of time and effort into it. At the very least you could say that it's colorful. You can even see the lines and strokes that the illustrator took in creating this. And some of these illustrations are actually very detailed! For example, there's a scene in which a whole bunch of people in a restaurant are eating lobster. Each and every character has a different outfit on. You can even see the texture of their hair.

This book does have a few issues in terms of grammar. For one, a comma is missing almost every time that Queen Vernita or another character is addressed. Missing commas have been an issue in this series and the Dragon's Breath series. However, it's nothing major.

Honestly, the main issue with this book is how choppy it is. It almost reads more like a list than a story. One moment/month, Vernita is doing one thing; the next moment/month, Vernita is doing another thing. There really doesn't seem to be a rhyme, reason, or direction to any of this. It's just... there. It just... happens. There's no antagonist. There's no villain. There's no problem or conflict other than a brief mention about protecting the environment and not polluting. So that seems to be our main issue with this book and this series. Where's the tension? Where's the suspense? Where's the conflict?

It often seems like Vernita is going from place to place and doing one thing after another. None of the people she meets, except for maybe Trisha, is memorable or stands out. They're more like NPCs. They're just... there.

Another thing we kept wondering about is how does Queen Vernita realistically fit into the over-arching story of the Land of Quails in which King Teddy and Queen Giggles (from Dragon's Breath and Precious the Baby Dragon) also live. In fact, Queen Vernita is even mentioned in that other series. However, aside from the trolls (which we aren't even sure are actual, fantasy trolls and not just straw/rock figures), New England or even the Land of Rain don't seem to fit with the portrayal of the Land of Quails in the Dragon's Breath series. New England and the Land of Little Rain are very modern. The people there wear modern clothes. They use modern tools and appliances to, for example, cook lobsters with. In contrast, the people in the Dragon's Breath series clearly live in a medieval-fantasy environment in which people use flames and lamps for light.

So... is Vernita a time-traveler? Is she immortal? Like, did she survive for 700 years in medieval-fantasy Europe (a land in which dragons live) and then visit New England in the 1900s/2000s?

Maybe we're overthinking this, but we do pay attention to details like that.

Maybe you can figure it out.

Check it out on Amazon!