Bella Wishes

Title Title

Author Tessa May

ISBN 0-9759325-0-0

Publisher CarLou Interactive Media

Category Children

Shira's Rating (on a scale of 0 to 5)

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What It's About

This book is intended for girls ages 4-8. It is a picture book with a large color drawing on each page and short, simple sentences of under 10 words each underneath. It tells of a belly dancing pink hippopotamous named Bella Wishes who swings her hips to and fro, to the left, to the right. The author's intent is to show girls that anyone, even a pink hippopotamous, can have fun exercising.

The book comes with a CD that has two tracks. The first track, which is about 3 minutes long, is a song whose lyrics are drawn from the text of the book (but it's not a direct reading of the book from beginning to end). There's no Middle Eastern flavor to the melody or rhythm. People who like the type of music typically heard on television shows for young children will probably like it. The second track of the CD, which is just over 2 minutes long, consists of the author reading the text of the book from beginning to end, which a child who is learning to read could easily follow along with.

Its Good Points

I love the author's intent of sending a message to children that exercise can be fun, and that it's okay to exercise even if you're as big as a cute hippopotamous.

The drawings by Dave Rodriguez which illustrate this book are very appealing. Tessa is a pink hippopotamous, wearing a pink belly dancing costume, and she looks like she's having a lot of fun belly dancing.

Some of the descriptions of belly dancing are quite appropriate: she swings her hips to and fro, she wiggles low, she moves her hips to the left, she swings her hips to the right.

The short, simple sentences and entertaining drawings should make this book appealing for its target market of children. Including the CD that reads the book to the child expands the pleasure a girl can get from the overall package.

A portion of the proceeds of the book go to support a children's scholarship fund offered by the author's non-profit endeavor, World TrustFoundation.

On The Negative Side....

The book says that Bella makes three wishes, but it's never quite clear to me what she's wishing for or why she's wishing for something. I think the concept of "wishes" could have been omitted without any loss to the plot or the message.

Some of the things that Bella does don't resemble any notion of real belly dancing that I've ever seen. At one point it says she jumps high, in another place it says her leg kicks left and then right. I think it's great to encourage a child to do these things for the exercise and fun benefits, but it seems rather odd to incorporate them into a description of a belly dancing character!

In Conclusion

If I knew any girls in the 4-8 years old age range I'd probably think about giving them a copy of this book or suggest it to their mothers. The illustrations are appealing, and I enjoy the portrayal of a girl who is having so much dancing that she giggles and is always smiling.

Where To Get It

<== Buy from Amazon.com in the U.S. (Prices quoted in U.S. dollars, shipped from U.S. warehouse.)

<== Buy from Amazon.ca in Canada (Prices quoted in Canadian dollars.)

<==Buy from Amazon.co.uk in the U.K. (Prices quoted in British pounds, shipped from U.K. warehouse.)

Web Site: www.bellawishes.com