Nora the Mind Reader
Written by: Orit Gidali
Illustrated by: Aya Gordon-Noy
Published by: Enchanted Lion Books, 2012
* Orit Gidali is an Israeli author. She wrote this book, in Hebrew, for her six-year old daughter, which was then translated by Annette Appel. In this story, Nora comes home from Kindergarten upset that a classmate told her that she had "flamingo legs." Her mother gives her a magic wand (a bubble wand) which allows her to see what people say and what they actually mean. Nora comes to realize that insulting people doesn't make sense but not doing anything about being insulted doesn't help either. So she decides to be nice to the boy and gives him a compliment (which she really means). She even invites the boy over to play but makes him promise to stop name calling. Nora discovers that she doesn't need the wand anymore and her mom leaves it outside for someone else to discover.
I am glad that so far my kids haven't experienced being insulted or teased by their peers and I hope that they never do. However, this was a good book to introduce them to the topic. Because even though I don't want them being teased, I don't want my kids insulting their peers either. It's important for them to try to put themselves in someone else's shoes before they say something. This book helped show that people sometimes say one thing and often mean another. For example, one illustration shows a boy saying that he didn't feel like playing soccer but he really thinks to himself, "I don't feel like losing." So, the book doesn't just deal with insults. Empathy is a difficult thing to teach, but this book is a great start.
This book was borrowed from the library.
Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.
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