I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A cute book. I love the main character. Love the artistic style.

Trini is a master at gymnastics and believes she will do just as well building with blocks. To Trini's surprise, block building doesn't come as easily to her and she has to put aside her pride and overconfidence and accept help from her friends. This is a good book to read aloud to students and discuss how all of us have different strengths and may not be good at everything, but that's when we can reply on friends.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this ARC.

This is another fun story that deals with childhood development, self-confidence and personal growth. Trini is very good at gross motor activities she has learned and practised at Bounce and Build, her after school club. She knows she is good at many things and is proud of herself. When she sees her friends building with blocks, she decides she would like to do that as well, all by herself, she can do that. What she finds out is that she is not good at building a castle with the blocks. When her teacher asks if she wants help, she says that she doesn't need it, but she finds out she does. Her friends offer to work with her and together they build a great castle. This leads into Trini helping her friends do things that she is good at. A very good message that we are not all good at the same things and it is okay to need help as well as the importance of working together and helping others. As I read this with my grandson, he felt that Trini was showing off. We talked about that and whether it is showing off if you are good at something and excited about doing it. He wasn't sure about that. He did like the story, thought her friends helped build a really good castle, and that it was good they helped each other do things. Some good lessons in this one. The illustrations are cute, quite colourful and whimsical. A good book for any home, library and primary classroom. The publisher generously provide me with a copy of this book upon request. The rating, ideas and opinions shared are my own.

'Trini's Big Leap' by Beth Kephart and Alexander de Wit with illustrations by William Sulit is a picture book about a very capable young lady.

Trini is really good at a lot of things. Especially anything to do with gymnastics. She is shown it once, and can master it. When she plays with blocks and tries to build a castle, though, things are different. Building things doesn't come as easily to Trini. Will she learn how to cope with learning new things and asking for help?

The book ends with a nice piece aimed at parents about introducing the kind of challenges that Trini faces so that young children can learn coping with new things. I really appreciated that. The story is good and the illustrations are really cute. I liked this story about learning to do things that you aren't immediately good at.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Penny Candy Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

Trini’s Big Leap
by Beth Kephart; Alexander de Wit

Penny Candy Books

Children’s Fiction

Pub Date 13 Aug 2019

I am reviewing a copy of Trini’s Big Leap through Penny Candy Books and Netgalley:

Trini is the highest flyer, the strongest gripper and she did the best cartwheels at bounce and build, she was so good she was a regular aeronaut, a stellar acrobat, even an Olympic hopeful. Trini always believed in herself.

But when Trini tries to construct buildings with building blocks, she learns there are somethings you need help with, and that’s okay!

This book would be a great book for a Preschool or Kindergarten class, where you can talk about believing in yourself as well as how it’s okay to need help sometimes, somethings are more fun with friends!

The illustrations in this book are beautifully done, and the book has a good message so I find it worthy of five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Pretty cute book. I expected my daughter to really like it since she's a huge fan of girly books. But I think this one was just okay for her. I really liked the way they came together to help Trini out. Even though she may not have deserved it really. The lesson taught in this book is great.

This cute and multicultural story is a perfect length for preschoolers and shows how it's great to challenge yourself, and how sometimes you need teamwork to overcome these challenges.
Trini is good at everything, until she decides to make a castle, and discovers she can't. Her friends join in and together they build a beautiful castle. The next day, Trini helps her friends do some of the things that have always come easily to her.

I love this story of cooperation and friendship. Trini and her friends work together on different things to make it work.

Trini's Big Leap is a beautifully illustrated book that shows how powerful we are when we work together. This is a much needed text in today's world.

This sweet little picture book is about Trini, who's good at everything, until she comes across an activity that she's never tried and once she's tried, she's really not that good at it. Luckily, she has some friends near by who are willing to help her out. This is a lovely story about learning to cooperate. It will make a great story for the beginning of the school year.

<i>Trini's Big Leap</i> by Beth Kephart and Alexander de Wit, illustrated by William Sulit, is a pretty cute story about a young girl who succeeds at basically everything. The world is her oyster and everything she does is easy. And the story begins with Trini in gymnastics, showing off to all the other kids how brilliant she is at cartwheels and all the like. Basically, Trini speaks to me because I was that successful kid and I unfortunately only learned to fail much later in my life. It was pretty detrimental. And so, of course, with Trini there will come a day in which she finally learns that she's not perfect at <i>everything</i>.

Honestly, this was an incredibly cute story with a beautiful message. And it's a story that I not only wish I'd known as a child, but I wish I'd experienced. I had a complete identity crisis the first time I failed miserably at something and I never really fully learned <i>how</i> to fail and how to <i>deal</i> with failure. And so this is a good way to show that to children at an early age so that they are able to learn and prepare for days when they might not succeed as well as they expected.

I will say, as much as I loved this book, I really just did not care at all for the artwork. In truth, it looked somewhat creepy at times, particularly with the noses. But I will give credit where credit is due and say that the ways in which the children were drawn were actually pretty exceptional as far as keeping them diverse in many ways. And for that, I did appreciate the art immensely. For some reason, I just couldn't quite get past the noses.

All in all, this is definitely a book worth picking up for your kiddos.

<i>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Super cute storybook about a little girl who felt she could do anything until she tried to build a castle with a tower and it became difficult until she did it with friends. This is perfect for children who like to do things by themselves but learn that working together makes it easier.

I loved this sweet tale of Trini, who can outdo anyone in gymnastics but struggles to construct things. She’s a physical whiz but an engineering klutz.

“It’s so much fun being terrific,” she says after flying high in a somersault. “Everything is so easy.”

Then Trini tries to make a castle out of blocks and everything is “too long, too short, too crooked, too wobbly.”

But friend Freddie offers, “Maybe we can do it together.” And he and Juniper and Keisha help her create a thing of beauty, while she helps them master acrobatics the next day. They construct kindness and cooperation as lovely as their castle.

All of us have gifts differing, this wise story says, and with patience and help from others, we can learn to do things outside our comfort zone. The illustrations are darling and a pithy afterward for adults encourages kids to tackle difficult activities as a way to prepare for life’s challenges.

The publisher, Penny Candy Books, was founded by poets Alexis Orgera and Chad Reynolds as a way to “make a difference,” according to Reynolds in a Publishers Weekly’s interview. “Language really matters. Poetry is one of the only vehicles for changing hearts and minds.”

I think TRINI’S BIG LEAP makes a decided difference. Way to go! 5/5

Pub Date 13 Aug 2019.

Thanks to the authors, Penny Candy Books and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#TrinisBigLeap #NetGalley

Perfectly serviceable little book for little people, to convey the benefits of cooperative play and behaviour. There's little wrong with it, but it did come as a surprise to find it needed three people to create. Still, those are clearly three people leading by example.

Trini's Big Leap was a cute story about a little girl who is good at everything...except building with blocks. It was a great resource for my son, who gets frustrated when he doesn't think he is good at something, just like Trini. He was able to connect with Trini and take something away. The illustrations were adorable as well.

This book really misses the mark. I had to read the parents' note at the end before I even understood what the message was supposed to be. That's way too vague for something aimed at kids.

Trini is really good at gymnastics, and she knows it. So, when she goes to build a castle out of blocks, she assumes it'll be a piece of cake. It isn't. So her friends offer to help her, and soon they've built a tower. Then she encourages them when they do gymnastics.

The problem I have with this is that it's very one-note in its tone. Maybe the authors didn't want to depict negative emotions and behaviour, but Trini's inability to build with blocks led to little more than a realization on her part that she couldn't do it by herself. In the real world, such a situation would probably be met with yelling, tears, or some blocks being kicked across the room. As it is, Trini's going to be hard for kids to relate to because she reacts like a rather zen adult.

There's also way too much end material. Maybe if more space had been spent on the actual story (there's one page in there that mentions Trini's mother not finding her at the regular pickup spot; I don't know what that has to do with anything), the book wouldn't have needed so much end matter. There are more than three single-spaced pages at the end trying to explain to parents what this book aimed to do. In fact, if you look at the page count, only 2/3 of the pages are for the actual story. The rest is largely composed of the note and the bloated author and illustrator bios (three more pages right there).

The illustrations are okay, kind of cute, and will probably appeal to kids. However, they're not illustrating enough of a story. So Trini's not so great at building with blocks. Why should we care? Unfortunately, the story doesn't really tell us, leaving that explanation for the note at the end. I don't read picture books for the parents' notes... and I'm pretty sure kids don't, either.

In Trini's Big Leap, Trini is a very confident young girl who knows she can do everything. Literally everything. Until she finds out she can't, not always by herself. She learns a lesson from her friends about teamwork. I wasn't a big fan of the illustrations and I was expecting more gymnastics but it was still a cute quick read that I think children will love. Just be ready for them to build their own castle or try lots of flips after reading! 🤸🏾‍♀️🏰📚💕

***Thank you to Netgalley and Penny Candy Books for providing me with a review copy.***