Title: The Knotties with Knots of Fun: The Rescue
Authors: Phillip Turner & Natalie Manning
Publisher: Xlibris
ISBN: 978-1-9845-0281-0
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book
Pages: 42
Reviewed by: Beth Adams

Read Book Review

This quintessential children’s book packs an imaginative story with action and adventure, all together with incredibly fanciful characters solving an emergency situation. The Knotties with Knots of Fun: The Rescue begins with a flash of lightning and keeps going at a very high-energy pace. The lightning strikes a tree branch with in turn falls into an old tool shed animating these little pieces of string. The string characters, as we learn called Knotties, get tied into knot-men and then come to life with personalities reminiscent of the characters of Toy Story; as they bravely have to save one of the Knotties from falling into a bucket of paint.

The two heroes, Will Knot, a strong and polite orange-colored Knottie and his redcolored sidekick, What Not, hear a cry for help and rush over to the edge of the workbench to see a yellow Knottie falling into a bucket of green paint. As they try to help they realize the yellow Knottie is too heavy to be pulled up, and they need to solve a problem using the tools scattered around the work bench. Devising a solution using a bungee cord, a magnet, and a metal nut, Will Knot puts the bungee through a pulley and holding on to one end, swoops down just in the nick of time and rescues the yellow Knottie before falling into the bucket of green paint. Wow, what a scene the authors created, done with the combination of story and pictures!

It needs mentioning the illustrations by artist Jesse Emmerson are perfectly in tune with the story, and brings the Knotties to the visual imagination of children reading or being read this story. Seemingly using computer enhanced graphic art techniques; the shadowing and visual point-of-view of viewing angles makes for illustrations which will captivate the minds of readers – both young and old. Each page carries forward the adventure and adds to the suspense of the situation perfectly.

So in the end, upon all three Knotties being safe and the yellow guy introduced as Why Knot, the trio stands ready with their selection of tools, such as a Swiss Army knife and a magnetic belt, to tackle the next adventure as they all have “Knots of Fun!” The Knotties with Knots of Fun: The Rescue, along with their inevitable sequels yet to be published, will be a favorite for youngsters to reach for to read at bedtime everywhere – as they drift off to dreamland with the Knotties in their minds.