One to Ten: Squirrel's Bad Day by Carole P. Roman & illustrated by Mateya Arkova [Review & Giveaway]

My thoughts: Prolific author Carole P. Roman has turned her attention from stories and journeys around the world to that of counseling and a scale of one to ten that children can use to rate hurts and disappointments in life. The illustrations by Bulgarian Mateya Arkova, who has previously illustrated several of Roman's books, are quite lively and colorful. Using water colors and a whimsical style of cute forest animals with bright, bold eyes she has squirrel being counseled by rabbit and bringing the entirety of forest critters into the group therapy.

Squirrel is traipsing along the forest with an armload of acorns and he trips spilling them into a stream where they get completely away from him. Squirrel being saddened by this loss is comforted by rabbit and then rabbit proceeds to use a system of rating a hurt or disappointment from one to ten as a means of identifying the gravity of an event.

The text is really thin which I find unusual for a children's book and the depth of thought and amount of text in the story somewhat beyond what I perceive as the intended age group for this picture book. It is doable, just different.The examples to be rated on the one to ten scale included  death of a loved on and also separation or divorce of parents. These are, naturally, rated upward to the 10 level. The concept of helping a child understand that some things definitely are worse than others and learning to cope with varying degrees of hurt and disappointment is needed and perhaps Roman's book is a great beginning.

About the book: Squirrel is running along a tree limb when she trips, losing all her acorns into the rushing water of the river below. Angry and frustrated, she doesn't know what to do. Her good friend, Rabbit, lends both a sympathetic ear as well as a solution. Rather than get angry, Rabbit tells her, rate the problem on a scale of one-to-ten. By identifying and realizing the true importance of the issue, the issue may not seem so overwhelming. Adorable forest creatures help the sad squirrel put everything into perspective so he does not to get stuck in a rut over something that may not be a big deal after all.

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DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy from the author to facilitate this review of my own opinions. I was not compensated. Winner's copy is provided directly to the winner by the author.

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