The following book was kindly sent to me by the author, Sara Y. Aharon, who requested a review. This book will be published on September 1, 2018 and you can check out the author's website or Amazon for more information on purchasing the book.

 

One Step at a Time by Sara Y. Aharon is a picture book which teaches children the value of perseverance and personal growth. Emma is a little girl who loves butterflies so it's lucky that her classroom has one for a pet. However, Emma gets so excited about playing with Belle the Butterfly that she accidentally sets her free. What should she do? Can she ever face her teacher and classmates again?  One Step at a Time demonstrates the advantages of accepting responsibility even when it's uncomfortable (especially then) and how being brave doesn't necessarily mean that you are totally confident that things will go your way. It's a gentle way to visually display the significance of doing the right thing even when you may be afraid. As this is self-published, I think there are a few things that could be done to set it apart and give it a chance against some of its mainstream contemporaries. Adding questions to test comprehension at the back of the book (nothing too daunting) would give the message that this would be a great teaching supplement. Perhaps including a link back to the author's website where additional information about metamorphosis and free downloadable butterfly coloring sheets are available would sweeten the pot even further. [A/N: I give these suggestions based on my own experience reading children's books and recommending them to the parents and teachers in my community. These are definitely hot ticket additions to any book and would make a great selling point. ;-)] It's a cute little story that has a good message. 7/10

 

What I'm Currently Reading: Mary B: An Untold Story of Pride and Prejudice by Katherine J. Chen

 

Amy has always loved acting and dreams of becoming a serious actress but being a celebrity has sucked her into the fast lane. Even though she does have a good part on a soap opera. Eventually she loses her loser boyfriend and her job. Babs her agent gets Amy on Strictly Star Dancing. The only problem is Amy cannot dance in any stretch of the imagination. Amy has to take a low rent apartment and agrees to keep an eye on the old lady- Cora upstairs. Then we learn about Cora who does know a thing or two about dancing but also tells of the man Cora loved at the end of the war.

This was an excellent story and plot but actually two stories interacted together. I absolutely loved it. The characters were great especially Amy and Cora. All the ins and outs Amy goes through in this story especially trying to fix her career. Some parts of this story brought a tear to my eye while other parts made me chuckle I highly recommend.

I received an ARC for this story for an honest review.

 

ONE STEP AT A TIME (HUGO THE HAPPY STARFISH) by Suzy Liebermann
Illustrated colorful children's book about a starfish that is walking around on the bottom of the ocean and comes across a shiny candy wrapper showing a big chocolate mountain. The manta comes by and tells him about this real life mountain in Switzerland and makes a list on how to get there. One step at a time, as he goes down the list getting his other friends to help him, but it's brought him to the other mountain. So he strives onward to get to the other bigger
one in the distance as others tell him 'do not give up'. The journey is long...
Some phrases are in German and they are translated into English. Love the journey and what happens at the end.
Also there are bonus summaries of the other Hugo stories.

A wonderful, thoughtful, passionate, very personal book about viewing the Twelve Steps of recovery through a Buddhist lens. I knew virtually nothing about Buddhism going into this book but I love seeing an alternate viewpoint to the Christian words and imagery that permeate the recovery movement. Buddhism and the steps turn out to be very compatible.