All the Ways to be Smart

This picture book from Australia has glowing colours that seem to leap off the page and rhyming text that children will very much enjoy chanting. The theme is that everyone is smart in their own way and that, ‘Smart is not just being best at spelling bees, a tricky test. Or knowing all the answers ever…other things are just as clever.’ The children in this story do all sorts of imaginative and fun things like playing witches or pirates, drawing ‘things with claws’, making boats out of boxes, helping people when they are sad or shy, playing the ukulele, playing space ships, etc. etc. In fact, there are so many choices of things that people can be good at that any child will find something (or several things) in these pages that he or she does well. My only slight caveat is that someone might think they had to be good at all the things mentioned, and that is certainly not the case. The book is a jumbly rumble of busy, bright colours and kids doing fun things – along with dinosaurs, birds and flowers and all kinds of creatures. It will appeal and help children who feel less than academically inclined to realise their own potential and do their best with their own talents and abilities.