Title: Unfortunately
Author: Alan Durant
Type: Paperback
Age group: 1 – 5 years
Unfortunately, not everyday in life goes perfectly
Fortunately, there are books like this one for those blue days
Unfortunately, it has an ending that made me go ‘oh dear’
Fortunately, my child didn’t think so. 🙂
Unfortunately (by Alan Durant) almost reads like a thriller for toddlers and had my child ooh-ing and ahh-ing at every twist and turn (Thank you Neerja for the recommendation. Your recommendations are priceless).
It swings from one unfortunate incident to a fortunate one (sometimes using wit, sometimes out of sheer luck). However, the whole topsy turvy ride is so funny, that the book carries an underlying message of not taking life too seriously.
An excellent book to help deal with anxiety in toddlers that also helps you see the bright side in situations.
(We made a game with the Unfortunately – Fortunately thing, so Neil, who suffers from motion sickness, came up with:
“Unfortunately I feel sick on the train to naani’s house, fortunately mumma carries a change of clothes!”).
From my child’s perspective this book was a superhit. From my perspective, this book is not only an extremely engaging and humorous read, that helps kids deal with anxiety in a very unique way, but it fuels their creativity. As adults, we are limited in our thinking and when I saw that the book ended on an unfortunate note (a dinosaur supposedly gulping the children), I pondered for a while whether I should skip the last page. I decided not to skip it.
And then, something interesting happened. Neil related the ending to something he’s read from another book, and figured what the following fortunately part should be.
“Fortunately, they had a feather with them, and tickled their way out of the T Rex”.
This is a subplot in Amyra’s wonderful book, When the four went time travelling. Thank you Amyra and Kanika!
But, it didn’t stop here, Neil kept coming up with outrageous scenarios, maybe the scary bird was still after them and rescued them from T-Rex’s mouth (you’ll need to read the book to find out the context) and several such scenarios. Not for one second did he take that last page as a sad ending.
It was a big lesson for me, to never limit my child’s creativity and thought process, just because I felt he wouldn’t be able to handle it.
If you enjoyed this review and wish to buy this wonderful book from Amazon (kbc affiliate link),
CLICK & BUY NOW!
