Review: ‘It’s all inside of you’
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 18, 2013
Author Keren Yadid  (with the very fine assistance from illustrator Inga Shalvashvili) has created an especially beautiful children’s book – just the perfect story for bedtime. It concerns the fears we all (especially children) face and how to cope with those fears. Set in charming rhyme, this is a sophisticated and very beautiful book that children will love.Mia is a cute little girl who has a problem – she is afraid of the dark. Despite the reassurances her mother gives her through a song about how to deal with fear, Mia is still frightened by the shadows in her nighttime room. One night Mia has a dream and In that dream she soars above the ground and sees a city with houses made of puffy clouds, snowflake streets, rainbow fruits on trees, a dwarf, a unicorn, an elf. She asks a fairy about the city and the fairy informs her it is Cloud City.  But in the midst of enjoying the Cloud City, Mia hears a roar: a Triceratops dinosaur wails that the city is too dark with terrifying storm clouds and she fears for her babies. Remembering her own mother’s supportive help Mia says she will help and she recalls her mothers song ‘It’s OK to be afraid, It’s a feeling we all share, So don’t be shy about it. Don’t fight it, don’t despair.’ Mia braves the elements, finds the dinosaur family and saves them and sings the last of her mother’s song, ‘And when you find your courage, there’s nothing you can’t do. Just spread your wings and fly, It’s all inside of you.’ When Mia awakens her mother reassures here that remembering her experience as being the hero to the dinosaurs she need never fear the dark again.The mixture of real emotions relayed in rhyme and incorporating fine fantasy makes the lesson of this story on that children will rely on when they feel fear at night. This is a charmer of a book! Grady Harp, November 13