kimbacaffeinate
Written on Jun 10, 2019
“Happy birthday, Madeline,”
he said with a wink.
“Take a potion, take a brew.
Just don’t drink the pink.”
The story not only offers delightful magical moments as it teaches colors, it also shares the bonds of family, of growing older, illness and touches on saying goodbye to someone you love.
The colorfully illustrations take us through Madeline’s birthdays as she chooses a different potion and the results. The colorful illustrations aided our imagination bringing forth joyful laughter. The repetition of the words in the story allowed our granddaughter to become involved in the story and before long she would call them out with Madeline’s grandfather.
On our first read through when we got to the pink, I had to hold back tears but Princess Sophia seemed unphased. As she is only four, I assumed she didn’t fully understand what had happened to Grandpa. On our one hundredth read through I got my answer. Princess Sophia said, “Her Grandpa passed away like when you and Gee-Gee passed away.” When I asked what she meant, she said, “When you went on vacation to the beach and I missed you.” It gave me a moment to touch lightly on the subject of death, using her thoughts and explaining it a bit further without pushing. This is a good story to help transition a child with elderly or ill family members with whom they have close bonds especially those between the ages of four and eight years of age. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Reviewer