Library Day - The Kissing Hand

The Kissing Hand

Product Rating:

Pros: Sweet story, touching, loving, educational

Cons: Not one!

The Bottom Line: The Kissing Hand is a wonderful book for young children to help them deal with change and transitions.

I don’t often write reviews of books that already have several reviews written, but the book The Kissing Hand is one that is so good, that I just couldn’t resist.

The Story

This is such a cute story about Chester raccoon who is preparing to go to school. At first he tells his Mom that he doesn’t want to go. He wants to stay at home and play with his toys and his friends.

His Mom reassures him that although sometimes things are strange and scary at first, he will enjoy himself and meet new friends and have new toys to play with. She also lets him know a little secret.

With a gentle kiss on his paw, she lets him know that he can feel her kiss on his cheek anytime he is feeling scared or lonely, simply by pressing his paw on his cheek. This makes attending school much less scary.

***Spoiler coming…stop here if you don’t want to know the ending***

When it is time for Chester to leave for school, he knew just what to do. He took Mrs. Raccoon’s paw, gave it a kiss and told her ”Now you have a Kissing Hand, too, Good-bye, I love you.”

The Illustrations

The illustrations in this book are filled with greens and blues and have a very real look to them. They almost look like a matte finished photograph, although they are actually drawings.

The drawings fill the page with beautiful color and enough details to hold the eyes attention, while taking in all that is on the page.

The bold black text is a medium large and placed so that it is easily seen. On some of the darker pages the text is set on the bright yellow moon or is done in white rather than black.

My Feelings

As I read this book to Sammi she listened very intently and when Mrs. Raccoon talked about kissing Chester’s hand, I took her left hand and kissed it. That made her giggle. When it came to Chester kissing his mother’s hand, Sammi kissed mine. I enjoy a book that is interactive as well as interesting and educational.

This story is so warm and gives me a cozy comforted feeling. What a wonderful way to help children deal with transitions and separation anxiety. The simple story holds the children’s attention while letting them know that their feelings are normal and okay to have. This book explores solutions to facing our fears in a creative and loving way.

I love that animals were used to help convey the message of feelings and dealing with fears. Children have such a natural love of animals and these are drawn so realistic and cute that they are really eye catching.


Nuts & Bolts

The Kissing Hand is a Scholastic publication that was printed in 1998 although the author, Audrey Penn’s copyright is 1993, as it was originally published by The Child Welfare League of America.

The wonderful illustrations are done by Ruth E. Harper and Nancy M. Leak.

This book can be purchased for as low as $2.99 used at Half.com in the hardcover format or new for $9.79 at Overstock.com.

Barnes & Noble recommends this book for children 4 – 8 years old, but I think children as young as two would really enjoy it.

ISBN: 0-590-04701-9

This review has been part of Sleeper54's Lean-n-Mean W/O Go Books!


Recommended:
Yes

Review by Kamel622 at epinions.com