Picture: Simon & Schuster UK.
The littlest Yak
von Lu Fraser
mit Bildern von Kate Hindley
32 pages
frist published 03.September 2020
Paperback : ISBN: 978-1471182600 £6.99
Hardback: ISBN13: 9781471182600 £12.99
Simon & Schuster UK.
An exciting story,
a joyous, rhyming caper that teaches little ones to celebrate their own unique talents!
A story
for self-strengthening / self-confidence
for children from 3 years
The story of Elli, the little yak girl, is not only wonderfully told in a fantastic, rousing rhyme language, but also conveys very nicely to "little ones" that you can achieve just as much, if not more, even if you are smaller than the others. Courage, character, empathy, inner greatness and so much more are not dependent on body size. Even more often, it is even advantageous to be smaller.
Elli suffers greatly from being the smallest. even younger yaks are bigger than them.She believes that only great things can be achieved by great people and she wants nothing more than to be big and grown-up. Her mother sensitively tries to explain to her that she will be big at some point, that there are also large and small specimens in the adults, that she should enjoy her childhood, the smallness, but that does not really go down well with Elli. Elli has only one goal, to grow up very quickly. So she starts with her own "So-become-I-big- Program".
But as hard as she tried, as creative as her attempts were, she remained small. Disappointed, she cancels her program. While she is still bathing herself in self-pity, the big yaks come running, they need Elli's help. Yaki, the little one, or should I say the young yak has climbed a high mountain top and can no longer come down alone. For the big yaks it is too narrow there, no one would get to the little one, only Elli can save Yaki, everyone agrees. And so little Elli sets out on the not innless mission to save Yaki. It will be exciting, exciting and fun. In the end, both are safe with the herd again and Elli is really happy to have made it, but above all she now knows that being small can also have advantages.
Everyone can do something, everyone is useful for something, no matter how big or small you are. When Elli lies happily next to her mother in the evening and looks into the dark starry sky, she gets something wonderful from her on the way. What that is, I will not reveal here yet. It is something that touches the hearts of everyone, whether big or small and Elli, who finds being small no longer bad but quite great.
Being small is no longer bad but great.
Lu Fraser's story of little Elli has taken children's hearts by storm. Everyone could feel how Elli feels. Everyone has had the same desire to be great. Surely everyone had slightly different reasons why being small is not as great as being big. However, there was a common denominator, all the little ones were of the opinion that they were not taken seriously by the big ones and that they were not trusted enough. In conversations you can start here wonderfully and find out what someone is good at, where the children see their own strengths and most importantly, where the others see the strengths of their counterpart.
The case that the story is perceived so intensely by the children is not only due to the illustrations but also to the rhyme language, which leads through the plot with its own dynamics and takes the reader on the journey in its own way. Elli tried a lot to grow up, but her true greatness was in herself. Only she was small enough to help and her courage and helpfulness was greater than anything else. This is visualized above all by Kate Hindley's wonderful, very expressive, loving illustrations.
It is not only the big eyes that appeal to the readers, it is the facial expressions and gestures, the dynamics of the images that wonderfully pick up and capture the situations. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes melancholic, sometimes cheerful and often so lively that you have the feeling that the pictures come to life. Especially when the text becomes part of the illustration and thus the movement and the events gain in expression, dynamism and strength through the writing, or is strengthened. Anyone who looks at the cover is immediately fascinated, wants to get to know the story, what awaits an inside you can not even begin to guess at this time. However, one thing is already clear at this point, Elli has already secretly crept into the reader's heart and much bigger than she can ever become.
