Many thanks to Dr. Jason Cheng for sending a copy of this book for me to review. Links to the book on Amazon are affiliate links. That means that I receive a small commission if you order from there after following the links. – Ann Z

Summary of the book

Amazing Amber and her Lazy Laser Eye is a new children’s book featuring a superhero named Amber, who just happens to need to do a bit of patching to defeat a pie-throwing villain.

The hero of the story, Amber, can fly and shoot things with her laser eye, and uses those powers to help people. Like all good superhero stories, there is a villain as well. In this case, the villain throws pies at innocent bystanders. Amber shoots the pies down with her laser eye, but when the villain creates a machine that can launch two pies at once, she learns that only one of her laser eyes works. She visits an eye doctor, who tells her that she has lazy eye. She wears a patch over her strong laser eye and practices using her other eye until it becomes just as strong. Using both eyes together, she’s able to defeat the villain and save the day!

Review

I really enjoyed and appreciated this book. The metaphor of a superhero who needs to strengthen her laser eye works well in the story and kids who need to patch for amblyopia will find her easy to relate to. There is no teasing in the book, or scenes of Amber disliking her patch, though patching is shown as hard work that takes time. The story is fun and funny and easy to follow. There are not a lot of books out there for kids who patch, so this is a welcome addition!

The illustrations by Alecksis Vladimir are bright and colorful and reminiscent of comic books, as is befitting a superhero tale. Amazing Amber is a collaboration between Eagle Ngo, a year -12 student from Brisbane, Mitchell Bagley, an orthoptist, and Dr. Jason Cheng, a Sydney-based ophthalmic surgeon. It is available in print and ebook.

The book is listed as being for grades Kindergarten – 6th grade. I think the book would work well for kids age 4 – 8. The text is not too dense, and the book can be read in one sitting. It would be an excellent book to read out loud to a class to help other children understand why their friend and classmate wears a patch.

Give Away

Updated March 4, 2019: Congratulations to Rachel who was selected from the commenters as the winner of the book give away!

Since Zoe is done with patching, I would love to give my review copy to someone else who would enjoy it. To enter, leave a comment about what super powers your child would want. I will randomly select a commenter to receive the copy on Monday, March 5, 2019. Make sure you leave your email address when you comment so that I can contact you if you’re selected.