Review - Trini's Big Leap

Trini's Big Leap
by Alexander de Wit & Beth Kephart
illustrated by William Sulit
Date: 2019
Publisher: Penny Candy Books
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 48
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

Trini is the highest flyer, the strongest gripper, the most spectacular cartwheeler at her after-school club. She easily masters any gymnastic move her teachers show her, and always says, "I can do that." But when she tries to construct buildings out of blocks like her friends do, she discovers that some things don't come as easily for her. Through the encouragement of her friends, Trini learns the value collaboration and trying new things, even when they aren't so easy. An afterword by the founder and CEO of The Little Gym Europe, outlines why it's important to encourage children to try new and difficult things.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This book really misses the mark. I had to read the parents' note at the end before I even understood what the message was supposed to be. That's way too vague for something aimed at kids.

Trini is really good at gymnastics, and she knows it. So, when she goes to build a castle out of blocks, she assumes it'll be a piece of cake. It isn't. So her friends offer to help her, and soon they've built a tower. Then she encourages them when they do gymnastics.

The problem I have with this is that it's very one-note in its tone. Maybe the authors didn't want to depict negative emotions and behaviour, but Trini's inability to build with blocks led to little more than a realization on her part that she couldn't do it by herself. In the real world, such a situation would probably be met with yelling, tears, or some blocks being kicked across the room. As it is, Trini's going to be hard for kids to relate to because she reacts like a rather zen adult.

There's also way too much end material. Maybe if more space had been spent on the actual story (there's one page in there that mentions Trini's mother not finding her at the regular pickup spot; I don't know what that has to do with anything), the book wouldn't have needed so much end matter. There are more than three single-spaced pages at the end trying to explain to parents what this book aimed to do. In fact, if you look at the page count, only 2/3 of the pages are for the actual story. The rest is largely composed of the note and the bloated author and illustrator bios (three more pages right there).

The illustrations are okay, kind of cute, and will probably appeal to kids. However, they're not illustrating enough of a story. So Trini's not so great at building with blocks. Why should we care? Unfortunately, the story doesn't really tell us, leaving that explanation for the note at the end. I don't read picture books for the parents' notes... and I'm pretty sure kids don't, either.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penny Candy Books for providing a digital ARC.

Premise: 2/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.5 out of 5