The Mountain is an amazing children’s book about perspective. Each animal sees the way the mountain fits into their lives and defines their livelihood. The artwork is fantastic and fun. The mixture of animals is perfect showcasing from all environments, it definitely teaches young and old that just because they see something one way that it doesn’t mean that’s the only way! A must have for all bookshelves.

Thank you to the Publisher, Netgalley and the Author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

All the animals of the mountain think that they know what a mountain is and it causes a kerfuffle between them. In order to gain perspective they leave their designated habitats and travel to the top of the mountain where they find that maybe they didn't really know as much about the mountain as they thought.

The illustrations in this book are incredible. It was a really enjoyable read.

My eight year old gives this book at 5/5 and so do I.

My daughter and I loved this book! The illustrations were so great and the message was good. Each page had just enough story to keep my daughters attention.

It taught a great lesson that you can’t comment on something until you’ve tried it and there isn’t always just one right answer- there can be multiple right answers! My daughter always wants to read this multiple times a week.

I loved the illustrations and the story was cute. each animal had a different perspective on what the mountain was, like many people today.

Rebecca Gugger tells a delightful tale about animals who disagree about what a mountain is in her book, The Mountain. Each animal has a different idea of what the mountain is and believes others are wrong. Not until the animals are trek the entire mountain, with the octopus in a diver’s mask full of water, that the animals begin to see that there is more to the mountain than they originally thought. At the end, they agree that what they each originally thought was just a portion of the truth and that sometimes you need to look at things from other perspectives in order fully understand a situation. The book could get a little preachy about the moral, but the full color illustrations really anchor this story. They are gorgeous and really make the story into a book you would want to read with your child.

Original story that is very cute! Engages the reader while providing a lesson about diversity. Unique idea for characters and great illustrations.

This book is gorgeous. My child really enjoyed the characters and landscapes. She spent time talking about the beautiful art and how she wanted to emulate it. The ending is abrupt, we thought we missed a page.

Everyone with an opinion we meet in life has only a partial picture of the whole... When you take all of these opinions into matter... you get a more rounded idea of things. This book has a great message and one that is timeless. The illustrations were really executed well and the message was equally compelling if NOT MORE! This is a book Id really like to add to my sons collection at home because it really drives home the importance of keeping an open mind when all around things may SEEM different. Well done!

An absolutely stunning book to show a variety of different perspectives and points of view.
I'm absolutely blown away by the illustrations, completely mesmerising.

The illustrations were beautiful, as my boys and I read the book together we felt as if we were falling into the page.⁣
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𝑺𝒚𝒏𝒐𝒑𝒔𝒊𝒔: 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒—𝑎 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡. 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑝, 𝑜𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑠, 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑖𝑠, 𝑠𝑛𝑜𝑤 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑒. 𝐼𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑚𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑙. 𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑒? 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡?⁣
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This is a fun loving story to help kids easily comprehend the action of taking a step back to see things through a new lens. My children and I really enjoyed this book, especially for its pictures. The abrupt ending did however cause a few confused kiddos, what is obvious to the adult reader needed further explanation to the kids.

The art in this book is stunning. I only wish the story lived up to it. The text feels too slight and the ending rather abrupt.

I am ordering a copy of this book for our home library! The illustrations are absolutely amazing and I can't wait to see them in person. I loved the simplicity of the story and the banter between the animals meant that it kept the children engaged (arguing about things is a second language for them) really so beautiful and I love this book

The illustrations in this book were adorable, and my children enjoyed them. I did feel like the book ended rather abruptly. I understood what the point of the story was, but the writing seemed a little disjointed.

The Mountain
Author, Rebecca Gugger
Illustrator, Simon Rothlisberger

Publisher: NorthSouth Books
Pub date: September 7, 2021

The bear, sheep, octopus, ant, chamois, and snow hare all think they know what the mountain is are are each set on proving themselves right. But the wise bird challenges them all and asks, "how many of you have ever actually been up on the mountain?" It is a perfect story that teaches children perspective, experience, kindness, and acceptance. Beautifully illustrated, this lovely children's book will allow you to have meaningful conversations that will teach your children to respect other people's opinions and have tolerance for another's point of view in a fun and light- hearted way.

Thank you NetGalley, NorthSouth Books, Rebecca Gugger, and Simon Rothlisberger for the opportunity to read and review this special e- ARC.

Loved their previous work, this one doesn't disappoint either, the message is clear, however, there was quite a lot of pages with text on white background, which somehow didn't work for me.

A timely and delightful book about allowing yourself to see others' perspectives, and build empathy for opposing views The message is one that is often in children's books but I've never seen it illustrated (literally - the art was great) in this way; simple but straightforward. WIll definitely be picking this one up when it comes out to add to our library.

Beautiful and appealing illustrations, a smart and important message, and a succinct use of words. I don't know how exciting the story would be for small children (I didn't test it on any), but as an adult I enjoyed it.

A sweet book with gorgeous illustrations. I love all the different animals with their different perspectives on what they see.

This is such a good read. I really enjoyed all of the characters in this story and the journey they had to get to the top of the mountain. I think it is such a fun read from start to finish and highly recommend this book!!

The Mountain is a sweet story about a group of animals arguing about what the mountain is and whether it is snowy, made of rock, grassy, etc. The illustrations are beautiful, colorful, and fun - a bear in a dense forest, the ant with his little "dumbbells" made of leaves and the colony doing various things like bathing and reading underground, etc. My favorite was the page of spliced images of each of the animals hiking across their terrain. This can help children learn about perspective as well as natural habitats of wildlife.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.