A Picture Book a Day for a Year: Day 357

Picture Book: Only One You

Author & Illustrator: Linda Kranz

Summary: A mother and father fish decide it’s time to share some wisdom with Adri, their little fish. What follows is a series of guiding statements to encourage their little one to engage and make the world a better place. The first suggestion is to “always be on the lookout for a new friend.” Many others follow. The loving parents remind him that “there is only one you in this great big world.” The unique illustrations involve individually painted rocks on a backdrop of photographs of ocean currents. A Spanish translation is on each page.

Hanna’s Comments: Your audience will love these illustrations! You might want to encourage them to try rock painting after viewing. Though it is not a long book, there are so many good ideas to discuss here that you might want to read it several days in a row, focusing on a few ideas at a time. My favorite parental nugget (dare I say pebble!) of wisdom is “set aside some quiet time to relax and reflect every day.” This author has written a companion book to this one that has Adri exploring the beauty of his diverse world. Its title is You Be You.

Original Publisher & Date of Publication: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2006

Age & Grade Appropriateness: 4 and up, Pre and up

# of Pages: 32

Available in Spanish? This book is subtitled in Spanish! 

Formats other than Book: Tablet, There is a video on Youtube.com.

PBT Category: Post 2K

PBT Topics this Book connects with: adventure, aspirations/dreams, babies/children, beach/ocean/pond/river/sea/shore, beauty, belonging, challenges, differences, diversity, Earth/world, encouragement, exploration, family, goodness, growing up/growth, individuality/uniqueness, nurturing, parents/parental love, preparation, problems/problem-solving, protecting/protection, rocks/shells/stones, travel, truth, wisdom, wonder

 

Scripture Connections: I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14); train children in the ways they should go; even when they are old, they will not depart from them (Proverbs 22:6); build your house on a rock (Matthew 7:24-27)

Idea(s) for Application: Besides being a great book for exploring all sorts of wisdom with children, this book could be read to a faith-based parenting group to encourage a discussion of the values they want to pass on to their children.