Angela McAllister’s collection teaches lessons and introduces cultures in a fun and accessible way
By Annie McClure The Activist guest reviewer
A Year Full of Short Stories by Angela McAllister is a children’s book filled with short stories. Each short story is found underneath one of the 12 months in a year. Each of the short stories comes from a different culture, so children are able to learn about different places, customs, traditions, and morals.
My favorite part of the book is the lessons that it teaches to young children in each short story. For example, in March, the short story “Tiddalik, the Thirsty Frog” is a story about a frog who drinks all of the water in the water hole, leaving none of the other animals. This story helps to teach children the importance of sharing with others and not being greedy. I find the lessons to be my favorite part because it teaches kids important life lessons while still keeping it fun for the child.
This book helps to teach children many different things. It helps readers to understand the months in a year. The books helps readers understand and learn about different cultures, holidays, and traditions different from their own. The book also helps to teach its readers important life lessons and morals.
The book has many different strengths. The book’s first strength of the book is that it is a great tool for teaching. The book does a great job of teaching children in a fun and entertaining way. The book makes its stories short and simple, so that children are able to easily follow along and learn. Another strength of the book are the illustrations for each short story. The illustrations are very bright and colorful making them fun and exciting to gaze at while reading each story. One weakness I did find with the book is the challenging words it has the children may struggle to understand. This isn’t a major problem, but it can still be challenging for some children. If a child isn’t able to understand the meaning of a word, they may have trouble understanding the story as a whole and its purpose.
I recommend this book to all young children. As I have explained the book teaches children many different things. It’s a really great source that teaches children many new things. One of my favorite quotes from the book is “he remembered the tiny baby, no bigger than his thumb, and he smiled, gratefully”
Overall, I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. This is a great book and I had a great time reading each story. The book is a “children’s” book but even me (a 19-year-old) learned many new things. The book is very fun and interesting. The book has great values and morals.
About McClure’s rating system:
I rate each book I review out of 5 stars. All of my ratings are strictly opinion based. I base these ratings on whether or not I enjoy the book, how easy the book is easy to read, whether I learned or got something out of reading the book, and lastly, what the book didn’t do or did do well.
