Review of Better Than Resilient

Post by **Annelore Trujillo** » 11 Dec 2022, 14:33

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Better Than Resilient" by Amy Graham.]

5 out of 5 stars

Share This Review

Better Than Resilient by Amy Graham is a children’s book that the author wrote about her son, Gavin, and his struggle with depression during the pandemic. The book is told through Gavin’s eyes, and we get a peek into his thoughts and worries. Before COVID, things were great for Gavin. School was great, a vacation was planned, and he was looking forward to baseball season. Suddenly a virus comes around, and everything changes. Gavin doesn’t know everything that’s going on, but he hears bits and pieces from the adults around him. How does this sudden change make him feel? What does the word “resilient” that he hears mean? Is he resilient? You’ll have to read this book to get his entire experience.

There are great lessons for children throughout the book. One of the biggest lessons that the book teaches is that you are not alone. Other people might be struggling too. For many people, just having this knowledge can make them feel better and less isolated. Another big lesson for kids that this book teaches is that it helps to talk about things. Adults and kids both find solace in sharing their worries with others. The final lesson that I think is the most important is that it is okay to not be okay. We tend to have this idea that kids are resilient and can push through anything. Many of us carry this expectation for ourselves into adulthood. The reality is that sometimes it’s just too much, and that is okay. This book does an excellent job teaching that.

The pictures throughout the book are also lovely. The writing and vocabulary are appropriate for school-age kids who are getting into chapter books. The spacing of the pictures in relation to the amount of text is also appropriate for this age. The book is exceptionally well-edited. I did not see a single error throughout the entire book. Kudos to the author for this. It’s not very often that I see a book without any errors.

The only downfall of the book is that the formatting is a little inconsistent. Sometimes the text is centered on the page, and sometimes it is aligned with the left side of the page. Some parts of the text are italicized, while other parts are not. I was unable to identify a specific pattern to this formatting while I was reading. Luckily, it isn’t something that takes away from the story. It’s just one of those quirks that I noticed because I was specifically reading this book to review it.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. The formatting issue that I mentioned is so minor that I could not reasonably deduct an entire star for it. I might have given it 4.5 stars if I could, but I just could not justify rounding down to 4 stars for something that I probably wouldn’t even have noticed if I weren’t reading it so carefully. The rest of the book is amazing. I would recommend this to any child, or even adult, who has emotionally struggled since the COVID pandemic.

******
Better Than Resilient
View: on Bookshelves

Ogechi Okonkwo · Post by **Ogechi Okonkwo** » 26 Dec 2022, 16:27

A well written children's book that I believe contains a lot of lessons that will be well-needed for children. This is a wonderful book and a wonderful review as well.