The Ugly Place - Laura Deal

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Author: Laura Deal

Illustrator: Emma Pederson
Genre: Children's Picture Book.
Rating: 3 stars.

This didn’t go the way I thought it would, though the intent is good.

A little boy makes his way along the Arctic shore while in an ‘ugly’ mood. As a result, everything around him is ugly to his eyes. However, when the sun shines its radiant beams on his face, his mood swings to a happier one and he sees that nothing is as ugly as he thought it was.

I loved the idea of this story. It highlights the importance of perspective and how our mood affects our response to our environment and those around us. However, the implementation left me with mixed feelings. On one hand, the writing is very poetic. It emphasises not just on the words but on their sound and feel, thereby adding greater credence to the boy’s ugly mood. It focuses on the importance of breathing and allowing the negative feelings to ebb away.

At the same time and quite paradoxically, the content is quite literal too. There’s no background, there’s no human interaction, there’s no explanation. It’s a very plain setup – boy in bad mood, boy sees natural beauty in ugly way, boy remembers to deep-breathe, boy in good mood, boy sees beauty all around. I can’t exactly pinpoint what was missing but there was definitely a disconnect in the flow. It just felt very abrupt and impersonal. The first person narration doesn’t help.

The illustrations are striking, even on the pages where the view is supposed to be ugly. The Arctic environment is represented well in those subtle pastel hues.

The book is intended for readers aged 6 to 8, Grades 1 to 3. There are quite a few tough words in the text, so reading assistance will be required for younger kids.

This is the kind of book that will work better in school or in a therapist’s office than in homes.

My thanks to Inhabit Media and Edelweiss+ for the DRC of “The Ugly Place”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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