Hank the Cowdog
www.hankthecowdog.com
We received these products (free) for our use to do this review.
Hank the Cowdog has been around for many, many years. I still had not even heard of him until we were assigned this review. We were given a book, The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse, which is #8 in the series. There are now over 50 books in the series. I read this aloud to our children and had to do some editing and word substitutions as we went. The funny parts were much enjoyed, but Mama did not care for some of the behaviour encouraged (lying) or words used. None of the words were awful, just ones we don’t use in our family (moron, idiot, etc.). You can purchase this book from the website for $4.24 for this story in paperback. Other versions are available as well as all of the other Hank books.
We also were given a CD of Hank’s Tales and Tunes which has story excerpts and some songs. These were mostly funny, but again that slightly off language kept it from being enjoyed by the family. Our two eldest daughters were laughing along while the youngers played outside. This is available for purchase on the website for $3.00.
The game Tornado we were looking forward to. It is completely self-contained, with the pieces being kept inside the foldable gameboard. The layout reminded us very much of the game Trouble. Our game included a cassette with a snippet of the story that the game is taken from. Even knowing that the starting location is due to the flow of the story, the placement of each person’s pieces was troubling to some of my children. We also had to adjust some rules (what number you could start a new piece with) or my children would have lost interest before the game had a chance to really begin. This would make a fun travel game for the Hank fan. The game may be purchased here for $12.99.
Hank was not a fit for our family. He has been around for so long and is so loved by many, Hank may be just what you are looking for to get some of your own children interested in reading. Many of the books should be available at your local library, so check out Hank the Cowdog for your own family.
Here is where you can read fellow Crew mates reviews.