Title: Sewing a Friendship
Author:Natalie Tinti
Genre: Children’s Chapter Books
Age Group: Lower Grade
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
The four best friends, who are seven years old girls, are super excited about the start of summer! Their adventure begins with getting out of school and talking about a pink sleepover. But things do not run smoothly when nine years old Kiki, the rival girl, gets in the way by uninviting the girls to a fashion show.
First of all, Natalie Tinti wrote and illustrated this book when she was barely nine years old which, in itself, is quite an accomplishment. The book is very adequate for seven to ten year old kids. It’s about four best friends who each have a rather unique name who wonder how they’re going to spend the summer holidays. The girls are each very different. There’s Meeka, who’s a bit of a brainiac and who enjoys solving difficult math problems, wondering how much humidity is in the air on any particular day, and all sorts of other scientific questions. Then there’s Sokron Blossom, who’s parents have a harsh set of rules she needs to follow, and who loves reading fashion magazines. There’s also Jonesy Jipsy who likes to belly dance and Nina who’s more relaxed than the other girls.
The girls meet up at the last day of school, and they wonder what they’re going to do during the summer holidays. They come up with the plan to join in the fashion show, but there are some troubles with that. First of all, there need to be five of them, and one of them needs to be nine years old. All the girls are seven years old, and there’s only four of htem, so that won’t work. But then they decide to ask Kiki Shaver, who’s the meanest girl in the world (the book says that literally, and I loved the sentiment behind that sentence so much that I remembered it) to participate with them. Kiki reluctantly agrees, and by the end of the day, they all become best friends.
The concept behind the story is cute and fitting for the age group. Natalie Tinti obviously has a lot of talent. I enjoyed her ability to write a story at such young age, and to come up with such colorful characters. Her illustrations were also very colorful and kind of cute. My only comment would be that at times the story felt a bit too disjointed, I actually had to go back a few times and reread part of a paragraph because the story made some jumps here and there.
Natalie has written a few more chapter books, and I’m looking forward to reading and/or reviewing these as well. She’s created a vibrant, enjoyable series.
Speak Your Mind