When Mala the Koala stomps into the forest, feeling very crummy, a little mouse suggests Mala will soon feel better if she starts to be kind. But how? wonders Mala. Soon she’s sharing her lunch with some emu chicks, helping a baby bat and comforting her friend, Wombat – discovering, on her way, that kindness really is what makes the world go round. This easy-to-read rhyming story, with gentle humour and gorgeous artwork, is a perfect introduction to kindness.
- Extent: 32 pages
- Dimensions: 250 x 224mm
- Hardback
- ISBN: 9781474998574
- Key Stage: EYFS, KS1
- Publication Date: January 2023
My Review
Thanks to Bee for organising this blog tour and to the publisher for my copy of this book.
This is an ‘Usborne Good Behaviour Guides’ picture book for children. This series is new to me, so I had a look on the publisher’s website. There are three books in the series and they’re all age 2+, for early years and key stage 1 education level. The other two books are about politeness and table manners.
Mala the koala is having a bad day and feels terrible, until a little mouse suggests she try being kind to others to make herself feel better. She helps other animals in the bush and feels better, and at the end of the day learns to be kind to herself.
The story is written in rhyming verse and introduces ideas about emotions and how to approach unhappy feelings and bad days. I liked the description of feeling a soreness in the tummy when things go wrong. It would have been nice if the emotion associated with those bodily feelings were named. Some of use can’t name our emotions or identify the bodily feelings associated with those emotions. I think that would be helpful for all of the feelings described.
The illustrations are gorgeous, richly coloured and happy. I really liked the illustrations, they remind me of watercolours or crayon drawings.
Just a note: I felt a bit icky about the implication that feeling negative things is bad and must be removed by doing something good for other people, rather than expressing those feelings. I have personally felt that social pressure to ignore my feelings and put other people first and I don’t think it’s a good lesson for children to learn. It might be useful for parents reading this book to children to tell them that it is normal to be upset when things go wrong but destroying things isn’t the healthy response.
Author Information
Zanna writes fiction and non-fiction for Usborne. Her favourite things to write about are small monsters and talking animals. She used to live in London but now lives in a cottage on the edge of some woods. She is only sorry there are no bears or witches in them.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/zannadavidson
Instagram: http://instagram.com/zannadavidson
Illustrator Information
Ged Adamson is a writer and illustrator. His breakthrough book Douglas, You Need Glasses! was published in May 2016 by Schwartz and Wade (Random House). Since then, he’s worked with many publishers as both author and illustrator. Self-penned titles include Shark Dog and Ava and the Rainbow (Who Stayed) for Harper Collins, A Fox Found a Box – again with Schwartz and Wade – and Bird Hugs for Two Lions. He is the illustrator of I Have To Start At School Today by Simon Philip (Simon & Schuster) and This is Not a Unicorn by Barry Timms (Nosy Crow). 2021 saw the publication of Scribbly (HarperCollins) and in 2022, his new book The Elephant Detectives will be published by Nosy Crow.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ged_adamson
Instagram: http://instagram.com/gedadamson
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