Reese and Dean Walters are back and ready to save the Erutuf National Park from pirates in this second entry in the Erutuf National Park series, following Turtle Tube. Cherry conjures the magic of nature for middle schoolers, as her young sibling heroes fall into unfamiliar territory on the (charmingly fictional) island constituting the Erutuf Park—the vast middle valley, where the kids chat and joke with a bison named Lamar, who roams the land with his herd. Lamar entrusts them with an urgent mission: they must save the park by finding the island’s hidden map and then secreting it in a new spot before the pirates (who look nothing like your average-joe pirates) manage to steal it.

This short chapter book (and series) is perfect for any middle schooler who enjoys adventure stories, the great outdoors, and silly chatter like this: “Want to hear a joke about paper? Never mind, it’s tear-able!” Action-packed and surveying a grandly conceived national park world that bursts with magic and surprises, Bison Blog also offers an engaging educational experience, as the characters reveal facts about the animals, environment, and the planet, while keeping the story lively and fun. Despite the chatty bison and some fanciful touches, like the role of an elixir that’s crucial to keeping the park going, Cherry transports children into a convincing milieu of valley flora, fauna, and terrain that stirs excitement about real-world natural wonders, inspiring curiosity to explore actual national parks.

The child heroes are drawn with personality and spirit—Dean and a friend are excited at the possibility of recreating the park in Minecraft. That spirit of imaginative mapping extends to the plot itself and also to the actual map, at the book’s start, that surveys the island park, displaying the various types of terrains that the Walters siblings will no doubt explore in future books. It's enticing, something for green-minded, future park lovers to pore over.

Takeaway: Playful adventure in a magic national park, perfect for young nature lovers.

Comparable Titles: Nathan W. Landrum’s Treasure off the Coast, Katherine Rundell’s The Explorer.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-