Official Review: Oh, the Things You Can Do

[MarisaRose]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Oh, the Things You Can Do" by Kara Lea Fleming.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Oh, the Things You Can Do: A Kid’s Guide to Happiness is a children’s picture book written by Kara Lea Fleming and illustrated by Anchal Gupta. Through vibrant illustrations and a rhyming narrative, this book seeks to help children learn about their complex emotions and how to handle their emotions during difficult situations.

At only twenty-four pages, this book may seem like it is geared towards a very young audience. However, the content of Oh, the Things You Can Do is suitable for a wide range of ages: this book could easily be read to children as young as two and as old as seven or eight. For a younger audience, the book exhibits basic messages about emotions and how our actions can impact other people. For older children, the book includes more complex messages about how to control our emotions and perform enjoyable tasks to promote happiness and cope with difficult situations.

The meaningful messages found in Oh, the Things You Can Do are not only limited to the narrative; the book also promotes a diverse message via the illustrations. The drawings found in this children’s book include multicultural characters of all shapes, sizes, and abilities. The illustrations promote inclusivity and ensure that all readers will be able to identify with the author’s message. Further, the brightly colored illustrations are sure to hold the attention of children of various ages.

Although there are many positive aspects of this book, there are some areas that did not feel as successful. For instance, the illustrations are not always cohesive: some pages include full-page illustrations filled with vibrant colors, while other pages have a lot of white space and include multiple smaller illustrations. Further, the narrative follows a rhyming scheme, but the words that are rhymed do not always contain the same number of syllables, which makes for an awkward rhythm in places, especially when reading the book allowed.

Despite some minor areas of weakness, Oh, the Things You Can Do is a wonderful children’s book. Given the difficult changes many children are experiencing these days, this book could be a helpful tool for parents and caretakers to use to promote positive ways for children to seek out happiness and learn to control their emotions. Moreover, the book is perfectly edited. The positive messages conveyed in both the narrative and the illustrations, coupled with the fact that this book is suitable for such a wide range of ages, make it easy to award Oh, the Things You Can Do 4 out of 4 stars. This book is highly recommended for parents and caretakers looking to help their children understand the complexity of human emotions.

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Oh, the Things You Can Do
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[Michael Jerry_]

Iv not really been in the mood to read for some weeks now but since this book isn’t that long and doesn’t come off as very serious or intimidating it’ll be the perfect book for me to read

[Etienneza]

Dynamite comes in small packets!A message that evokes the power of the mind and heart centre in a conscice script. Thank you for an informative review.