Title: Magic Words: From the Ancient Oral Tradition of the Inuit
Translator: Edward Field
Illustrator: Mike Blanc
Type: Fiction
Genre: Children’s
Publisher: Tundra Books
Date Published: July 5 2016
Format: E-book
Page Count: N/A
Source: NetGalley
E-copy of the book kindly provided, in exchange for an honest review.
Summary: Ooko has everything a fox could want: a stick, a leaf and a rock. Well, almost everything . . . Ooko wants someone to play with too! The foxes in town always seem to be playing with their two-legged friends, the Debbies. Maybe if he tries to look like the other foxes, one of the Debbies will play with him too. But when Ooko finally finds his very own Debbie, things don’t turn out quite as he had expected!
★★★★★
This book was not only incredibly cute and entertaining, it was also funny!
The primary lesson being taught in this book is that you should not alter yourself in order to become friends with those who will only accept you if you are a certain way. Ooko teaches us that you can make friends simply through being yourself, and that that is the best way to make friends. I believe that there is a valuable lesson in this for children-especially those who struggle with making friends at school.
I wish that I had had access to this book when I was young, as I would have appreciated its teachings, and I may have gone about things a different way, if had encountered this story when I was a child.
The writing is minimal, and easy to read- which allows for the pictures to tell a good portion of the story. And the drawings are colourful and eye-catching.
Despite it being a short book (which I am of course not criticizing, since children’s books are expected to be fairly short), the characters are well-developed, and their personalities feels as if they could pop right out of the page.
Overall very enjoyable. I highly recommend this book!
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