How The Stars Came To Be by Poonam Mistry

 

How The Stars Came To Be

By Poonam Mistry

This has got to be the most beautiful book I've ever seen! The illustrations are breath taking! The story is beautiful as well. The Fisherman's Daughter was worried about her father fishing in the dark when the moon was new so the Sun took a golden ray and shattered it into a million pieces for her to place in the sky. As she meticulously placed the stars into the sky in patterns of animals, beginning with the North Star that she called Polaris, a monkey saw the bag. The glistening stars caught the monkey's eye and he grab the bag and climbed a tree. The Fisherman's Daughter went after the monkey and she pulled the bag of stars from the monkey's grip, all of the stars fell out of the bag and right into the sky. Even though the stars lumped together and were very unorganized, they lit up the sky and allowed her father enough light to see his way home safely.

This is a perfect book for a folktale theme. Beautiful pictures and an easy to follow tale.

Trying By Kobi Yamada

 

Trying

By Kobi Yamada

This is one of my favorite authors. He has also written What Do You Do With A Problem and What Do You Do With An Idea which are also really great books. I haven't read his other books, but I'm sure they are just as good.

Trying is about a boy who walks in on a sculptor and wishes he too could sculp such beautiful things. The sculptor tells the boy that he can, but he must try first. The boy replies "I'd rather just watch. I can't mess things up if I just watch." The sculptor tells the boy that you succeed because you are willing too fail. Every time you try to do something, then you are one step closer to succeeding and that you should be proud of your failures because it means that you are learning. The sculptor takes the boy in the back of his shop and shows him all of his failed sculptures. "These are my friends. These are my failures." The sculptor tells the boy, "When we make it safe to fail, we make it safe to succeed."

Trying is such a powerful and amazing book and I recommend it for both children and adults. It provides a very different perspective on failure and the necessity to try.