Review: ‘Look how beautiful you are!’
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 28, 2013
Shulamit Zilberberg offers a beautifully written book with illustrations by Mindy Liang that deals with the habits children fall into as far as choosing their own outfits to wear to school that not always appropriate and how parents can intervene gently – with the help of a special toy.Kate doesn’t want to dress for kindergarten warmly on a cold an rainy morning, but prefers to wear a short red skirt. Her mother gives in but adds a green shirt and warm coat and then mom rushes to work and dad drives her to school, but they are late due to the extra time to select clothes for the day. The same thing happens the next morning and the next. Frustrated, Kate’s mother puts clothes out on Kate’s bed before she goes to sleep along with a fairy doll and tells Kate the fairy doll wants to help her choose her clothes for the next day. Kate is happy with the assistance of the fairy doll ‘selecting’ the clothes for school. The night passes and the next morning Kate happily puts on the outfit the Dressy Fairy has chosen, and this new routine is successful in every way – Kate is appropriately dressed, mother doesn’t have to rush to work, and Kate is always on time for school.Books such as these serve both to entertain and to teach children and the manner in which Shulamit Zilberberg tells her story accomplishes this mission with banners! Grady Harp, November 13