Toy Story 5 Adapted into Two Kids’ Step Into Reading Books: Review
Looking for a sneak peek of Toy Story 5? I checked out two recently released kids’ books, based on the film. Both follow Bonnie’s story, as she struggles to make friends. (For a few actual spoilers, scroll to the bottom of the article.)
New Step into Reading book Bonnie’s New Toy has an interesting format, alternating between “Once” pages, where we revisit scenes from Toy Story 4 such as the introduction of Forky, then “Now” scenes where we see parallels of what Jessie is doing in Bonnie’s room. It’s an intriguing format to alter back and forth like that, relating experiences.
The book came out on May 5. It’s $7.99 Canadian as paperback or on Kindle, or $5.99 American.
In contrast to those parallel stories, Toy Story 5: Team Up! takes almost a non-fiction approach to laying out the story, devoting pages to establishing the characters and their new roles. Sections of the book almost have chapter titles, despite being only a Level 3 picture book, and character introductions are done on white backgrounds, before they appear in scenes.
Also from May 5, it’s $5.99 American or $7.99 Canadian, on paperback or Kindle.
A copy of each book was borrowed from the Brampton Library for review.
Spoilers
- In Bonnie’s New Toy, Jessie and Bullseye are misplaced by Bonnie and found by another girl, Blaze. Jessie tries to use this opportunity as a way to reunite the toy girls.
- In one scene of Bonnie’s New Toy, there’s a small army of Buzz Lightyears in the background. Team Up! confirms there’s fifty of them, after a shipment of Hi-Tech Buzz washes up on shore.
- With Woody and Bo Peep gone, Jessie takes on Woody’s leadership role in Bonnie’s room, with Buzz as Sheriff’s deputy, according to Team Up!
- Via Team Up!, Blaze’s pets are Daffodil the horse, and Jimmy Dean, a pig. I guess friendship is the Jimmy Dean way. It also introduces The Tech Trio, three abandoned toys whose novelty have worn off.