Review of "The Blue Ribbon Day," by Katie Couric

Review of

The Blue Ribbon Day, by Katie Couric ISBN 0385501420


Five out of five stars

 The theme of this children’s book is how to bravely face failure and use it as a learning experience and as a way to move on to other things that may be more suited to your physical and mental skills. Ellie McSnelly and Carrie O’Toole are friends at Brookhaven School. They get very excited when they see a sign announcing tryouts for soccer.

 When the workout is in progress, Ellie demonstrates significant skills at the game while Carrie has trouble making contact with the ball. When the roster is announced, Ellie has made the team while Carrie has not. After shedding tears of disappointment, Carrie decides to enter the school science fair. Her project is the use of sugar solution to make blue rock candy, and her project does so well that she wins a blue ribbon. Demonstrating to the reader that there are many types of skills, what a person needs to do is discover which ones they have and learn how to leverage them to success.

 The text is written in four-line segments, where lines 1 and 2 and then 3 and 4 rhyme. All rhymes are simple and can be understood by the student in the middle of elementary school. The illustrations are colorful and depict a lot of action with intense facial expressions.

 This is a good book for children, the theme is about life and how the manner in which we face and respond to disappointment determines whether we will be successful or not. I strongly recommend it for all children.