Book Review : Something Beautiful

Book: Something Beautiful 

Author : Sharon Dennis Wyeth 

Illustrator : Chris k sonetpiet

Age : 4 plus 

 

It's a sunny morning , little girl gets ready to school . She glances through her window , lot of trash and broken glass in her courtyard . 

Out of her building , the building door is scribbled with words DIE, while passing through the road she sight  a lady whose house is a cardboard box and she is sleeping by covering herself with a plastic sheet.

She runs  through a lane which is dark , as her mama said not to stop there, next a garden with no flowers...Little girl remembers that her mama said "Everyone should have something beautiful in their life"

So where is my something beautiful ??? Her journey of search starts.

In school teacher teaches the word BEAUTIFUL , and little girl thinks  Beautiful means  ""Something when you have it ,your heart is happy "".So starting from school she keeps on asking everyone whether they have something beautiful ??

Right from the diner, her friends, fruit vendor, her aunt , old man in her society and her mom ,everyone has an answer  , what they said? What is their something beautiful? Is the rest of the story .

Beauty doesn't mean the outer looks , something that is from inside , different from one 's  skin color , it is not from wherever we live , anywhere we are there is something beautiful around us, it is our attitude towards others .With outstanding illustrations this book also teaches social consciousness ,as how to keep our surroundings clean and neat.  

Book Review : Dev and Ollie ( colour carnival ) by Shweta Aggarwal

Book : Dev and Ollie ( colour carnival ) 

Author : Shweta Aggarwal

Illustrator : Somnath Chatterjee

Age: 3 plus

This is the second book from the author and it's about Holi a festival of colours.Celebrated all over India , this festival signifies the victory of good over evil . A festival that helps in repairing broken relationships where , people express their love by way of colours .

 Story :

Dev is a neat freak , he doesn't want to get into mess.So he doesn't like either painting class or sand play and obviously the Holi festival . His favourite toy owl Ollie , decides to change his mind and makes a plan  to take him to a place where Holi is celebrated , they both take off and land in Agra . 

Dev meets some kids out there and also gets into a trouble , how he overcomes the same and whether the colourful mess makes him delighted is the rest of the story .

Review : 

Again the author strikes with an excellent  storyline which is easily understandable by kids . The story reminds me our first holi in north India where even we adults were  afraid of mess and hesitated to get out of home . Like it is said that all is fair in love and war , anyone and everyone is a fair game in the festival of Holi . Along with beautiful illustrations , the author also conveys the message of A friend in need is a friend indeed .

Simple storyline , beautiful illustrations , and the useful informations at the end of the book, not only about the festival but also about colours and the important monument of our country ,makes it a worthy read .Strongly recommended for those parents whose kids are going to explore about Holi for the first time . 

Book review : The boy on Fairfield street( How Ted Geisel Grew up to become Dr.Suess) by Kathleen Krull

    This book is a biography of the most famous children's author Dr.Suess . 

    Unless and until we read the book "The School Story" by Andrew Clements , we never knew that Ted giesel is the actual name of Dr.Suess, thanks to Clements for provoking our anxiety to learn more about Dr. Suess.

 

 

 Story:

Born in 1904, Theodor Suess Geisel ( his full name) lived in Springfield Massachusetts, with his parents and sister ,his house is the beautiful place of all , because three blocks from his house was a public library and six blocks was a Zoo. His father being the superintendent of parks ran the zoo.

    Ted's daily routines include read aloud of a story by his mom everyday on bedtime , and discussion about animals in the zoo with his father during dinner.These things made him more attached to books and animals, the two things to which we relate him till now.

     The boy who always roamed happily with his friends in the neighbourhood , who liked doodling, drawing apart from books and animals had a dark side too .He has always been bullied in school since he is a German immigrant , always considered as a failure as he is not good at shooting ( in which his parents excelled)and has weak muscles  .

     

    Even though he wins in art competitions , his art teacher considered him as a loser , since his drawings are always exaggerated , his view about a particular thing or animal is always different ,flying cows , plant like animals , cat with nine ears etc.

  Of all these odds how he managed to become Dr.Suess, the favourite author for not only kids but also adults is the rest of the story.

 

   The story that teaches courage determination  and working towards ones own passion . Also included at the end of the book a beautiful summary about Dr Suess and details about his books.