Book Review: HUGO THE HAPPY STARFISH
Written & Illustrated By Suzy Liebermann
Published by Happy Language Kids LLC
Released on November 1st, 2010Source- book from author for reviewAges 3 & up3.5 stars- It's A Good Read
Happiness Begins Within... a story about self-esteemHugo the Happy Starfish Learns to Love HimselfHugo is a little starfish living in the big green ocean. Every day Hugo smiles and makes other creatures happy—and doing that makes Hugo happy. But one day Hugo stops smiling. He begins to feel small and ugly, convinced that nobody likes him. Hugo decides that he should try to be more like the Magic Manta so that everyone will like him. Join Hugo on his journey as he discovers that being himself is the best way to be—and the only way to be happy.
Hugo's story is a good way to teach kids about having a good self-esteem and to be happy with the way they are. Hugo is a happy star fish who likes making others feel happy, but when he's granted a few wishes he decides he wants to change a few thing he doesn't like about himself. Hugo learns a great lesson and once those changes are made he wishes he could be himself again.
With it's cute, brightly colored pages, Hugo will teach kids to be happy just being themselves. The only compliant I have is I felt the Spanish translation were really random through out the story. I would have loved to see the translations on every page and not just in the middle of some of the sentences or on certain pages. This is a great story that will each kids to have a good self-esteem and like Hugo learned, they too will realize they're special just the way they are.
Katie, thank you so much for the review and the constructive idea about the Spanish translation.I think it is a wonderful idea to offer the book in a complete bilingual version in the future! We'll do! :)The idea behind the Spanish part of the book is to offer only a small vocabulary to the kids so they have an easy time to learn it and eventually OWN it.The sentences/words are written in English, then in Spanish and at the end of the book there is a glossary for the translations. The vocabulary can then be practiced with the worksheets that are available for free on our website to deepen the learning process.The Hugo series comes with a Spanish learning program that offers entire translations and bilingual stories. The link to that program is available on the HappyHugo (dot) com website.Thank you for your time and effort, it is much appreciated.
Suzy
Happiness Begins Within
... a story about self-esteemHugo the Happy Starfish Learns to Love HimselfHugo is a little starfish living in the big green ocean. Every day Hugo smiles and makes other creatures happy—and doing that makes Hugo happy. But one day Hugo stops smiling. He begins to feel small and ugly, convinced that nobody likes him. Hugo decides that he should try to be more like the Magic Manta so that everyone will like him. Join Hugo on his journey as he discovers that being himself is the best way to be—and the only way to be happy.
Katie, thank you so much for the review and the constructive idea about the Spanish translation.
I think it is a wonderful idea to offer the book in a complete bilingual version in the future! We'll do! :)
The idea behind the Spanish part of the book is to offer only a small vocabulary to the kids so they have an easy time to learn it and eventually OWN it.
The sentences/words are written in English, then in Spanish and at the end of the book there is a glossary for the translations.
The vocabulary can then be practiced with the worksheets that are available for free on our website to deepen the learning process.
The Hugo series comes with a Spanish learning program that offers entire translations and bilingual stories. The link to that program is available on the HappyHugo (dot) com website.
Thank you for your time and effort, it is much appreciated.
Suzy
Suzy
