Book Review - Toy Story 3: Best Friends Magnetic Storybook

Millions have flocked to enjoy Disney/Pixar’s latest film, Toy Story 3.  Many may be looking to buy a Toy Story 3-themed book for their children.  This is a great way to relive the moments of the movie, spend time reading with your child, and instill in them a love for books.

Reader’s Digest Children’s Books now presents their Toy Story 3: Best Friends Magnetic Storybook.  This hardback book could be enjoyed by children of many ages, from preschool up to elementary-aged children.

Within the front cover is a windowed compartment.  Inside is a small pillow-like doll of the main character, Woody.  He is to be enjoyed along with the book itself.  To get Woody out of his compartment, a perforated cardboard door must be opened on the back side of the cover.  While it is perforated, it is not easy to open without doing serious damage to the door, which really needs to stay intact.  I would recommend getting an exacto-knife and use it to gently cut through the perforations to release the door.  Once the door is opened, your child now has their Woody doll to enjoy. 

Before reading the book, turn to the very last page.  It folds out of the book and is very stiff.  This page is magnetized for use with the Woody toy as you read.  Keep that last page opened out, and then close the regular pages until you see the pages with the garbage bags and the minivan.  Now fold the magnetized page down, so it’s lying on top of the minivan page. Next turn the garbage bag page to be on top of the magnetized page.  You should now see the first two pages of the story and you’re ready to begin.

As you read the first page of text to your child, have your child place their Woody doll on the page featuring Jessie the cowgirl and Buzz Lightyear.  The magnetized page underneath will grab Woody’s hands if the illustrated page is placed flat against it. 

When you have finished your first page of reading, turn the Jessie/Buzz page.  Then re-open the magnetized page. Then turn the minivan page. Then close the magnetized page on top of the Lotso Bear page.  Then turn the left-hand illustrated page back to be on top of the magnetized page.  You should now be open to the garbage bag and minivan pages.  Have your child place Woody on the minivan page as you read from the garbage bag page.  Continue this sequence throughout the book.  When you are finished, place Woody in the front compartment again and firmly close the back door.  If you didn’t damage the door when you initially opened it, it should close well enough to hold Woody inside for next time.

Toy Story 3: Best Friends is a nice storybook.  The narrative is simple and easy for young children to understand.  The illustrations are just beautiful.  The writers and artists did a fabulous job.  However, I found the concept of the magnetic page and toy Woody doll to be distracting and ineffective in storytelling.  Getting Woody out of his compartment was challenging.  Getting the magnetic page arranged each time we turned to the next page of the story was annoying.  And my 5 year-old child didn’t really see the point of sticking Woody to the book.  He loved the doll though, and enjoyed playing with it by itself.  In fact, when we went to see the movie Toy Story 3 for the first time, stuffed Woody doll came along!

The book has it’s nice features, but it would have been just wonderful without the magnetic page device.  I doubt I’ll be using that accessory when I read the book to my child in the future.

This book was provided by Amazon.com as a part of their Vine reviewers program.
No other compensation for this review was given.