#BOOKREVIEW
CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK REVIEW AS A WRITER AND A READER

Title: The Most Magnificent Thing
Author & Illustrator: Ashley Spires
Genre: Fiction, Children’s Picture Book
Target Reader:  6-8 years

The book The Most Magnificent Thing has MAGNIFICENT illustrations and story. It provides life lessons to children to not give up easily, that trying new things is fun, and focused effort brings amazing results. There are too many messages included in this one book, but the good part is that it doesn’t feel overloaded. The presentation and narration of the story make things simple and easy to grasp. The text flows smoothly and keeps the reader engaged.

The story begins with the introduction of a girl and her best friend, who are always together. The girl loved creating things, and she wanted to make ‘the most magnificent thing.’ She started with full enthusiasm. She planned, collected the items, and started building. She first made something that she didn’t find magnificent. She then tried again and again and made many things, but none of them fell into the category of magnificence. Many admirers passed by her and couldn’t understand what she was making. Not being able to make anything magnificent made her mad. ‘I am no good at this. I quit.’

Ashley Spires, the writer and illustrator, captured the raw emotions that come with failure—anger, frustration, and self-doubt—and brought them vividly to life through words. For example:

The PAIN starts in her finger.

It rushes up to her BRAIN.

And she EXPLODES!

Many children feel sad or angry when they don’t achieve what they want. They are resilient, but they need to learn to step away to calm themselves and come back with a fresh perspective. The book offers a tool to take a break from the madness and return with a clear mind.

The girl’s assistant took her out for a walk. When they came back, she looked at the trail of things she had created and realised that not everything was wrong. She would fix those items to make them work. By the time she reached the last, she knew that she would make it into a magnificent thing. She fixed it while her assistant ensured that no one disturbed her. Finally, it happened. She made ‘the most magnificent thing’.

This reminds me of one of my students. A 7-year-old genius boy, who is highly focused and works on experiments like a 12-year-old. He would have a huge emotional outburst when his experiment wouldn’t work after five to six attempts. He would get mad and wouldn’t take a break.  As a teacher, I could see that he is mentally exhausted. Sometimes it’s hard to distract a child who is laser-focused on creating something marvellous. But the moment he accomplished his vision, he would dance in ecstasy and would invite everyone to dance with him.

Another wonderful thing about the writer of this book is that she has not used any character names. The story begins with, ‘This is a regular girl,’ and it instantly becomes relatable to the reader. Ashley has included a wide variety of verbs and adjectives that make this book a helpful reference tool for introducing new vocabulary in the classroom. It is filled with verbs like smooths, wrenches, fiddles, explores, tinkers, and many more, alongside adjectives such as regular, wonderful, wrong, long, small, square, fuzzy, and so on.

Finally, this story is about resilience and teaches that we can create anything if we stay focused. It also tells us to step away and come back with a fresh perspective, because people who refuse to give up create something unique. 

Furthermore, I believe that this book teaches one of life’s crucial lessons, not limited only to children. It is a reminder to adults to keep trying, and one day, ‘The Most Magnificent Thing’ will get created.

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