A Beautiful Girl

by Amy Schwartz

On her way to market Jenna makes four new friends. Along with Baby Elephant, there's Robin, who thinks Jenna has a very silly beak; Fly, who wonders where her hundred eyes are; and Goldfish, who thinks she has very goofy gills. Kirkus has written that "the power and grace in Schwartz's spare style and language lies in the fact that she never condescends to young readers―she just compares notes." Here she once again completely and convincingly captures the world of a child in a beautiful and winning picture book about . . . a beautiful girl.

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Hardcover

First published August 8, 2006

About the author

Amy Schwartz is the author and illustrator of many picture books for children, including Begin at the Beginning; Things I Learned in Second Grade; Bea and Mr. Jones, a Reading Rainbow feature; What James Likes Best, recipient of the 2004 Charlotte Zolotow Award; and a glorious day. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband Leonard S. Marcus, and their son, Jacob.

Reviews

[Hannah Lundstrom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Beautiful Girl is about a little girl who is heading to the market and along the way meets all these animal friends. Each animal she meets asks her why she is different than them and she tells them how she is a pretty girl and says her uses with each body part. In the end as mom comes to get her we see how she has made friends with them and that they love their beautiful new friend.

The theme of this book I think is seeing differences, learning about them and embracing them.

Personally, I enjoyed the book because it was fun and happy. I liked how the little girl was confident in herself and how she knew she was a beautiful BIG girl. I liked how she made new friends with all the different types of animals and that they learned about each others differences.

I think I would recommend this book because it teaches kids to be inclusive and that others may be different and that you can still be friends with them. Also, I liked how it can get kids to think of their body parts and senses. Finally, I think it would be a good interactive book that can be used in engaging the kids and learning what/where the body parts are and what they are used for.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does a good job at explaining something educational in a fun way.

[kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a sweet and funny little story about a little girl who compares her senses to those of various animals. The narrative is short and ends on a soothing note that makes it good for bedtime reading.

It's probably most appropriate for younger children and I'm not sure what inspired me to borrow it from the library, but we enjoyed reading it together. Our oldest said that it was probably because I was thinking of our own 'beautiful girls' and I couldn't agree more.

[Kaycee Greenwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I was reading this book tons of lesson plans jumped in to my head. This would be a great book to introduce sense and what we use them for. The illustration are very colorful and the writing was very loving and warm.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't a big fan of the illustrations, but the story was pretty cute.

[Wendy Wayling · Rating 3 out of 5]

A delightful picture book for reading aloud. On her way to the market Jenna meets a number of different animals who think Jenna is silly because she doesn't look like them.