Books with Life Lessons

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Don't you love when a picture book has an underlying message? I do. Today I am going to share with you four new books that have different lessons in them. The first is Pablo and His Chair by Delphine Perret.  

This story is about Pablo and it is his birthday. At his birthday party he receives a big gift. He cannot wait to see what it is. When he opens it he is shocked and a bit upset that it is just a chair. His grandmother hopes it will help him sit still for once. He angrily takes his chair to his bedroom and locks himself in. By the end of the day he is a skilled chair acrobat and takes his show on the road. He amazes crowds around the world and then he returns home. His family greets him as if it was any other day with no time passed and he shares his story. I love the lesson of taking something that you are angry about and finding the good and using one's imagination to find the wonder in it. 

 Our second book is A Bike Like Sergio's by Maribeth Boelts and illustrated by Noah Z. Jones. In this book Ruben wants a bike like his best friend's, Sergio's. Sergio does not understand why Rebun cannot just ask his parents since his birthday is coming, but Ruben knows money does not grow on trees and when his mother is already deciding what necessaries can wait another week to be purchased there is no money for a bike. Then Ruben sees a woman drop money. He picks it up and it is one hundred dollars. He does not know what to do. It is enough to buy a bike like Sergio's or it would help his family, but what about the woman who dropped it. He hides it and eventually returns the money to the woman and then tells his parents all about it. The lessons are so plentiful. There is the honesty, feeling good about one's own actions and understanding the life of others and especially ones in poverty. Yes we had a conversation about the family's financial situation in this story. 

Our third book is I Don't Want to Be Big by Dev Petty and illustrated by Mike Boldt. This book is coming out next week!! It is definitely for the younger children. It is about not wanting to eat your dinner. Frog doesn't want to eat and sees no reason to grow big. After all his big friends are horrible at hide and seek. Finally he learns the lesson that growing bigger is not the same thing as growing up. His dad even joins him and his friend, Pig, in playing in the mud. It is a great book about growing and some of those fears that come with it.

Our final book for today is Made by Raffi by Craig Pomranz and illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain. Raffi lived with his family but he often wondered why he felt so different from the other kids at school. Raffi did not like the noise and rough play at recess so often he sat by himself or stood with the teacher. One day he saw Miss Fernandez knitting. He was very curious about it and wanted to learn how to do it. With practice and patience Raffi learns to knit. When it came time for the class play Raffi has an idea and the next day came in with a cape for the prince and all the students wanted Raffi to make them something. No one teased him anymore and they all thought Raffi was cool. The lesson in this book is to be true to yourself and not just follow the crowd. We love this book and Hazel felt she could really relate to Raffi. 

So each of these books has an important lesson that helps raise our kids to be themselves. I hope you will check them out!!