“Chopsticks” is a book about an inseparable pair of chopsticks, written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Scott Magoon. The story is about a pair of chopsticks who do everything together, until one day, they’re forced to be separated. Hesitant at first, Chopstick ventured out into the world and had its own adventures. When Chopstick was finally reunited with its best friend, it told them all about the adventures it had. I think that the message of this story is to try new things, because you might like them. I’m the type of person to stay in my comfort zone and I don’t tend to try new things, which could be an issue at times. In the book, Chopstick leaves it’s comfort zone by leaving its best friend for the first time. I personally liked this book, but I think that “Spoon” was better. Compared to “Spoon” the message was unclear at times, and I often found myself thinking about what it was. However, I did enjoy the little jokes in the story. The story showed the readers that sometimes you have to try new things, even if they’re not something you’re used to.

“Spoon”

“Spoon” by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and illustrated by Scott Magoon is a story about a spoon wishing he lived the life of his friends, Chopsticks, Knife, and Fork. The spoon starts out feeling unhappy with his life and starts envying his friends, but then the readers find out that his friends were also jealous of how Spoon lived. The story ended with Spoon’s mother telling Spoon how lucky he was. I say this for almost every story, but I liked it. I really liked the little jokes in story, and I generally like it when books incorporate puns. I think that the moral of this story is to be grateful for what you have, and not waste so much time on wishing you had a life you didn’t. Personally, I can relate to this a bit because whenever I see somebody on vacation, or maybe with something I really like whether its on Instagram, or even YouTube, I’d start thinking “wow they’re so lucky.” Envying people probably isn’t a great habit to have since you’d start forgetting or looking past some of the things you have going good in your own life. People should be thankful for the opportunities or things that they have, because there are probably people out there who won’t get a chance to experience them.

“Alfred Nobel: The Man Behind The Peace Prize”

“Alfred Nobel: The Man Behind The Peace Prize” is a book about the creation of dynamite and the Nobel Prizes, written by Kathy-Jo Wargin and illustrated by Zachery Pullen. The story told us about the origins of the Nobel Prizes, which came to be after Alfred created dynamite, leading to an accident that killed his brother, along with 4 other people. Two years after the accident, a newspaper was published with the headlines being about Alfred’s death, which was mistaken with his brother. The paper said that Alfred had created a weapon, something that he had not intended the dynamite to be. On Alfred’s will, he wrote a statement saying that his house will be used for what is now known as the Nobel Prizes. I think that this story was informative, and the pictures were interesting to look at because of the crazy amount of detail. Before reading this book, I had no idea who made the Nobel Prizes, nor the story behind it. For all my life, I believed that it was the “Noble” Prizes, and not “Nobel” so this story cleared some things up. Personally, I enjoyed the story because of the information, the art, and probably because I also like history.

I Used To Be A Fish

I Used To Be A Fish is a story about a boy who used to be a fish, written and illustrated by Tom Sullivan. In the story, the boy imagines human evolution starting from a fish, then into a salamander, then into monkeys, and then eventually humans. I think that this story is educational to a degree, but inaccurate because evolution doesn’t exactly work like that. Personally, I really liked the pictures and how the faces always looked a bit terrified because it made it funny in a way. The fish in the beginning was my favourite because of how cute it looked with it’s tiny fins and huge eyes. I really enjoyed the story because of how lighthearted and funny it is, I think that it would be a nice story for younger kids to teach them the very basics of evolution. 

Bat’s Big Game

“Bat’s Big Game” is a book about an indecisive bat, retold by Margaret Read Macdonald and illustrated by Eugenia Nobati. The story followed a bat when he can’t decide on a team during a soccer game between animals and birds. The bat first joins the animal team, convinced that they would win. As the game progresses, the birds are leading and the bat switched teams and joined the birds instead, but the victory didn’t last too long as the animals then started beating the birds and of course, Bat switched teams again, desperate to win. Soon enough, the game stopped and the players noticed how Bat had played on both animals and birds teams. They told him that to play on a team, he would have to stick with them whether they were losing or not, so he left the field and started practicing his soccer skills. I think that this story is telling people that to play a game, you have to have commitment and how winning isn’t the most important thing. Others around my age tend to be more competitive and victory-driven which could potentially an issue because winning really doesn’t matter as long as you’re enjoying yourself. And although it’s nice to be a bit competitive sometimes, being the best isn’t that important, and this story represented that.