Road Academy by Olya Ratinkova & Julia Belenkova – The Strawberry Post
A book review of a fun children’s picture book helping to teach children how to be safe around roads through the story of Rick a raccoon and his fox friend Dan.
About Rick and Dan: The Secrets of Smart Behaviour: Road Academy
Title: Rick and Dan: The Secrets of Smart Behaviour – Road Academy
Author: Olya Ratnikova
Illustrator: Julia Belenkova
Publisher: Independently published
Genre: Children’s picture book
Book format reviewed: Paperback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: Rick and Dan are just ordinary boys, but together with them, children will easily master important skills. In this beautifully illustrated children’s book, young readers (ages 3 to 8) will discover essential road safety tips in a fun and engaging way. Join Rick and Dan on an adventure through their bright and kind day, where they learn about crossing the street safely, recognizing traffic signs, and the importance of staying aware on the road.
With vibrant hand-drawn illustrations and simple, easy-to-understand language, “Road Academy” helps children grasp vital road safety concepts while enjoying a story filled with friendship and adventure. Perfect for parents, teachers, and caregivers looking to introduce young children to basic safety rules in a friendly and memorable way.
Key Features:
1.Aimed at children aged 3-8
2.Beautiful hand-drawn illustrations on every page
3.Teaches road safety in a fun and interactive way
4.Great for early learners, preschoolers, and early elementary students
This book is an excellent educational tool and a thoughtful gift for any parent or teacher who wants to make learning about safety fun and engaging for children.
*Free copy provided by author for review…
My review and thoughts on Rick and Dan: The Secrets of Smart Behaviour: Road Academy
This is a fun picture book helping to teach children all about how to be safe around roads and cars. Raccoon Rick loves to learn things, and his mom teaches him all about how to be safe in a car, how the seatbelt gives you protection and how you shouldn’t look at your phone while driving. But when Rick meets Dan after school, Dan makes some mistakes, like trying to get off the school bus before it stops. Can Rick teach Dan how to be safe around roads? The paperback is filled with matt pages of some really lovely illustrations and text, and the back cover features a lovely scene too.
While Rick seems to know how to keep safe after learning things from his mom, soon he’s with his friend Dan as they decide to spend some time together after school. But when flying a kite Dan rushes towards the road without thinking about safety. Luckily Rick is there to help stop him getting into danger. There are more things that Dan and Rick learn about road safety, and I like how we see them learning how being road safe leads to a happier time, and how easily the information is shown to children reading this. The illustrations also really help with showing all of this information and they are all so very fun!
Every page is filled with so many wonderful pictures. I like how both Rick and Dan look and the expressions on all the characters faces. There are lots of other animal characters in the pictures too and I love how they all look. The pictures look like beautiful and detailed watercolours and I love how colourful and detailed so many of them are. You can spend quite some time just enjoying the illustrations alone, though of course the story is a good one too. Overall a great book for teaching kids the basics of road safety in a fun and easy to understand way.
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Other children’s picture books about safety
-Read review – What We Wear When We Take Care by Sarah Finan
What do you think of this book? Did you ever have any road safety lessons as a child? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
