Book Review - Soaring Soren: When French Bulldogs Fly

Disclosure: This blog contains affiliate links which I may earn a small commission from if you purchase through them, at no extra cost to you.

Meet Soren, a French Bulldog puppy who is finding his feet and with the support of a special friend, he finds his way in spite of the obstacles that he needs to over come. Soaring Soren is an amazing book for your family library!

Book Review – Soaring Soren: When French Bulldogs Fly

Upon opening the pages of ‘Soaring Soren: When French Bulldogs Fly‘ by Deborah Stevenson for the first time, it doesn’t take long to fall in love with Soren. He is illustrated (by Morgan Spicer) beautifully throughout the entire book.

The Beginning

We meet a French Bulldog puppy on his way to a foreign country to pursue a career as a show dog. Upon arriving he meets Deb, a lady whom he connects with straight away.

Soren settles into his new home and begins training to be the ‘perfect French Bulldog’. While he tried his very best to be the best show dog, Soren grew outside the breed requirements to reach this dream and would never be the show dog he had aspired to become.

Devastated that he could not stop growing, Soren was sad to never become a show dog and most of all, he was sad to disappoint Deb.

The Middle

Some time passed and while Soren was playing one morning, Deb noticed an athletic side to Soren. With these new found skills recognised, Deb starts training Soren to become an agility dog. It was a challenging journey for Soren as French Bulldogs are not necessarily built for agility. However, this did not deter little Soren from reaching his new goal.

Along his journey, learnt new techniques, he made mistakes and practised, practised, practised. After months of training Soren and Deb compete in their first competition.

The End

Upon arriving, Soren was intimidated by the other dogs. His friend Deb reassured him and reminded him of all his hard work. While his run wasn’t perfect he was motivated by Debs suggestion that he could get an agility championship.

Soren and Deb continued to compete in agility trials. They receive criticism and meet people who don’t believe they will meet their goal. The two friends support each other and stay strong to their ambitions in spite of what others say.

What we think about Soaring Soren

The underlying values in Soaring Soren really are beautiful. The text is written in a homespun language from the point of view of Soren. Miss 5 loved reading the high frequency words that she has been learning at pre-primary and being able to read “a big kid book”.

This is a story about working hard to meet your goals and staying true to your ambitions in spite of what others may think of them. Soaring Soren shows that mistakes are made on the way to greatness and when one door closes, other opportunities will come along.

One of the perks of reading is how the reader can discover new words and terminology. Soaring Soren bought the world of agility into our lives!

We learnt so much about the obstacles, requirements, the layout and techniques. As a little exercise to help further comprehension of Soaring Soren, we created our own agility course. Miss 5 and Miss 2 loved pretending to be in their own agility trial just like Soren.

Miss 5 loved the added feature at the back of the book with photos of the inspiration behind the tale – the original Soren and Deb themselves! I felt like seeing those photos allowed her to connect to the story even more.

Thank you for a great book!

Soaring Soren truly is a great book for children. The message is simple to comprehend and the tale is inspirational. Deborah Stevenson has delivered a charged up book different to any other.

Our family are thoroughly enjoying reading Soaring Soren – it hasn’t been on the shelf since it arrived weeks ago!

Thank you to Frog Prince Books for the opportunity to review this lovely story about friendship, perseverance, resilience and determination.

Dani D x