Fulami Wins the Race

De: Lamar Golden, Liana Golden

Narrado por: Elenya Daley

A sweet and inspirational story about a space girl who overcomes her weakness to achieve her goal. This book will motivate your child to strive hard in all they do. Once you pick it up, you will not want to put it down.

©2023 Lamar Golden and Liana Golden (P)2024 Lamar Golden and Liana Golden

Not Much to It

This is now the third children's audiobook I've reviewed by this father-daughter team. While I certainly want to support such a creative endeavor, unfortunately, this book doesn't work well as an audiobook. In fact, it’s so short that I questioned if the actual picture book has pages with just pictures and no text. The entire audiobook is less than 4 minutes long, including the intro and outro. The thing that distinguishes this race is that it takes place on another planet, giving a slight sci-fi vibe to the story. However, this was not played up beyond the mere statement of the fact. It would have been fun if the race was somehow changed because of being on a different planet; it was not. The story felt mostly told rather than shown, and not much actually happens. The basic story: Fulami sees a friend do well in a race, determines she will do better next time, learns and practices for the race, and then wins it. No personal hurdles to get through beyond her not doing well during the first race. No setbacks making triumph sweeter. The narrator added little interest to the story.

An important life lesson for toddlers

I love how this story teaches young readers/listeners the importance of practicing and making slow, intentional progress toward their goals. My only criticism of this story is that it was almost too easy for Fulami to overcome her obstacle. Most children have a bumpier road ahead and need to settle for incremental improvements. That said, this audiobook offers a wonderful opportunity to start a family conversation about growth mindset and what to do when our efforts don't go as smoothly as in this story.

Elenya Daley's narration is beautiful in this audiobook, and she alters her intonation to create an engaging listening experience.

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.