Title: My Happy Birthday
Author: Mary Ryan
Publisher: Self Published
Published: August 30 2012
Format: Kindle
Pages: 25
Source: Received from the author
in exchange for an honest review
Read: December 10, 2012
In A Few Words: Nice Sentiment
My Rating: 3 Stars
Amazon Synopsis*:
Besides being enjoyable, this story teaches children a life lesson!
“Imagine being a young boy, who is looking forward to celebrating his birthday, only to realize that his parents are so busy that it seems they have completely forgotten about this annual event…?”
That happened to Samuel, as he was very sad to discover that his parents forgot all about his eighth birthday. Read how Samuel deals with his sadness and sorrow, and discover which important life lesson he learned. All is well that ends well, as Samuel gets to enjoy a very special day, one of the most important days of his life.
Read this book to your child for enjoyment, and at the same time, teach one of the most important life lessons any child needs to learn in order to succeed through life
Melissa's Musings:
Samuel wakes up in excitement realizing that it's his birthday. He is then disappointed to find out that his mother has apparently completely forgotten his birthday. On his way into town to run errands for his mom, he meets an old man with a broken down truck and helps him fix it.
The lesson embedded in this meeting is a very good one for children to learn. The man teaches Samuel that it's good to be thankful for what you have and to use it for as long as you can, which is important since we've seemed to become such a "throw it away and get a new one" society.
Then Samuel comes home to find a surprise of his dad waiting for him, and a shiny new red truck that's been left on the porch. Sam declares it the best birthday ever.
Overall, the message of the story is nice. It teaches kids to be thankful and appreciative of what they have. And it teaches them that fixing items is a better thing to do than just throwing something away and getting a new one.
The structure of the story seemed a little wordy for a book for 4-8 year olds. The drawings were a little odd to me too. They seemed really caricature like, rather than realistic, and this made Samuel appear to be much older than an 8 year old boy. It seems to me like the look of his character changes throughout the book and he starts off young and then on the last page, I'd say the drawing of him makes him look like a young teenager, so that was definitely a drawback. If there's anything that's really important in kids' books it's consistency, whether it's in the story itself or the illustrations.
*The synopsis and cover used in this post are both credited to Amazon.com
The lesson embedded in this meeting is a very good one for children to learn. The man teaches Samuel that it's good to be thankful for what you have and to use it for as long as you can, which is important since we've seemed to become such a "throw it away and get a new one" society.
Then Samuel comes home to find a surprise of his dad waiting for him, and a shiny new red truck that's been left on the porch. Sam declares it the best birthday ever.
Overall, the message of the story is nice. It teaches kids to be thankful and appreciative of what they have. And it teaches them that fixing items is a better thing to do than just throwing something away and getting a new one.
The structure of the story seemed a little wordy for a book for 4-8 year olds. The drawings were a little odd to me too. They seemed really caricature like, rather than realistic, and this made Samuel appear to be much older than an 8 year old boy. It seems to me like the look of his character changes throughout the book and he starts off young and then on the last page, I'd say the drawing of him makes him look like a young teenager, so that was definitely a drawback. If there's anything that's really important in kids' books it's consistency, whether it's in the story itself or the illustrations.
*The synopsis and cover used in this post are both credited to Amazon.com
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