Look and Be Grateful

Reviewed by: Deidre Walsh - Goodall Memorial Library, Sanford, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: October 13, 2015

Review

Look and be grateful. Grateful for everything in the day. The day itself. That is the message in this simple and small book. The sentiment and the theme are excellent. And it is easy enough for a toddler to understand. Text is sparse, 2-4 words per page. The illustrations are simple, familiar to a toddler, muted. He used transparent acrylics on tea stained paper. They are lovely. But illustrations and text are not in harmony. But perhaps that is not necessary since the purpose of the book is to be grateful for all things. However, there are two pages where this is really awkward. On one page there is an illustration of a window and the sun beyond it, with text below that says "and look". On the next page there is a picture of a boy supposedly looking out that window. But to me the boy just has his back turned to the reader with a hand up looking at a blank wall. The book is very small too. That with the muted illustrations make it unusable for large group sharing. It would be best as one on one sharing or in small groups. Coupled with "Oh the Places You'll Go", it would make a lovely give for a recent graduate or a young person just starting out on their own. It could be used as a discussion starter to introduce children to the concept of being thankful and grateful. The binding is sturdy and the book comes with a jacket cover. The message of this book is excellent, but I found nothing that stands out with this book. Buy where dePaola is popular and where collections are in need of simple books on being thankful. Todd Parr's "Thankful Book" and "The Blessings Jar" by Colleen Coble could be paired with this title to make a nice story time with a thankful theme.

Overall Book Score: good