It’s kind of unfair for me, an adult, to be too harsh on my judgement on a children’s book. However, I think this work has some issues that, in a way, kind of defeat the purpose of honoring the title this book has.

First, I want to point out that the artwork, Ricardo Cortés illustrations, are interesting by themselves. They contribute in a positive way to the child-like quality of the book. That’s not an issue with the book. What really bothered me (and maybe bothered is a too much strong of a word) is the narrative driving the point behind the title.

Don’t take me wrong: I think it’s a very honorable goal to defend how cannabis is perceived, and how unjustly it has been treated during the last century by the American political elites (and consequently the world). Nonetheless, where this book fails is in its attempt to make a grown-up issue into a child-like narrative. The result is not a tale for children, but a a grown-up attempt to make a child story from everyday facts surrounding grown-up problems with not being able to use marijuana.

To put it differently: this book doesn’t make the marijuana issues relatable to a child. Grown-ups world is a very complicated world. Any child, curious as children are, with no difficulty will find many contradictions and nonsensical issues in how grown-ups deal with their worlds. So it’s kind of obvious that you can pick any one of those issues and point out how contradictory and nonsensical they are. However, this doesn’t make a very good children’s tale.

So what disappointed me upon reading this book was the lack of creativity (on the story part, mind you) in promoting a dreamscape of sorts where cannabis and its issues would be the center and the starting point for a child to change its outlook on what cannabis is and how it is treated.

Before I sound too harsh on my criticism, and in order to take the point home, I’ll return to the beginning of this critique. I’m an adult, and by that measure I’m not the best judge of a children’s book. My issues with this work are more grounded in my disappointment by seeing here a lost opportunity in making this a more interesting book, both to the child and for the parent/relative seeking an insightful take on the issue.

Is it worth to pick it up and read it for the child? Is it worth for the child to read it? Can’t really say. Judging by the title, it seems to me that either the parent or the child will be kind of disappointed if they think it’s “a children’s story about marijuana”. Maybe it would deserve a better rating if it was treated as it really is, a story about parents having to explain to their child how weird grown-ups treat the marijuana plant.