In keeping with rhyming week, today on my youtube channel Great Books for Kids Reviewed by Michelle Marcotte, we will look at On Your Way by Mike Purewal. This book uses a rhyming text and an adventurous girl to tackle some of the difficult feelings that kids experience.
We meet our young girl as she heads for the forest, happily finding many friendly animals but unhappy to find that loggers are gleefully chopping down the famous rainbow tree. This makes her very angry, but the writer tells her not to sit in anger constantly because it will hurt her eventually.
Our adventurous gal then travels to the city whose noise and bustle lead her to escape on a rocket ship. She meets up with friends who are also travelling in Outer Space. They enjoy a concert with all the stars playing musical instruments from all over the world. But a fearful loss of fuel leads to a crash landing on an unknown planet. She is reminded not to sit in fear which will hurt her eventually, so she finds some gas, fixes her rocketship and heads for planet earth.
But with her rocketship out of control, she lands in the depths of the ocean where she did not intend to go. Being in the depths of the ocean worries her. But she is again told not to sit in worry, so she explores the ocean floor finding the weather machine that powers the earth and keeps the world in harmony. The power of the weather machine fixes her space ship. She blasts off home finding her friends playing outside where she is sure more fun and adventures await.
Mike Purewal is both the writer and illustrator of On Your Way. He lives in Toronto Ontario Canada. His adventurous girl looks to be about 8 years old, which would be a good age to read this book. An eight year old should be able to read this book to herself. Here she is seen wearing glasses and doing everything herself in a pink playdress with blue shoes, proving that girly girls can get the job done!
Published by Bumblebee Books you can buy On Your Way from Amazon.