The Panda That Wanted To Touch The Sky - Jessica Sinha - ★★★.½

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AUTHOR: Jessica Sinha
ILLUSTRATOR: Tetiana Kopytova
GENRE: Children's Picture Book
RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A nice picture book about how dreams can be accomplished with some help from friends. Not a fan of the verses, but liked the illustrations.


Story Synopsis:
A little panda longs to fly and touch the sky. He even attempts flying by climbing atop a bamboo tree and flapping his arms. But as expected, the attempts ‘thuds’. Some monkeys laugh at the panda at trying something he wasn’t meant to do. But when the panda explains his reasons, the monkeys decide to help him.


This is a sweet story overall, though not pathbreaking. The panda’s belief in his dream is a bit shaken after others laugh at him. But the monkeys’ support and friendship helped the panda achieve his goal, though in a slightly different way. I like how the story doesn’t stress on achieving the original, impossible dream, but shows a practical workaround that comes near to the original intention. Any children’s book that claims ‘You can do whatever you set your mind to’ sets a tough precedent, as children’s imaginations tend to be quite wild and hence not always limited to achievable goals. So this pragmatic approach deserves praise.

I am not a huge fan of rhythmic prose in picture books as many books force in the rhymes without bothering about meaning or poetic meter. The verses in this book, written in the ABCB scheme, didn’t impress me as much as I would have liked. While some of the lines work well, some don’t flow. The meters also vary across the verses, which breaks the flow while reading aloud. There are a couple of tough words in the content, but this may not be a problem as they are easy to explain.

The illustrations are quite lovely. Drawn in soft pastels, the full-page colour graphics capture the jungle and the expressions of the animals very nicely.

All in all, this is a decent indie picture book that ought to work well for reading aloud as well as classroom discussions. The vocabulary makes it a good fit for 4-6 year olds.

My thanks to author Jessica Sinha for providing me with a complimentary copy of “The Panda That Wanted to Touch the Sky”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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