 Hi everyone, my name is Steph and welcome or welcome back to my channel. Today I'm here to share a review of The Most Amazing Thing by Ian Hayward Robinson and illustrated by Matt Shanks. This is a new release book from Alan and Unwin who sent this to me as a review copy so thank you very much to them. This is a gorgeous book that is about our identity and finding wonder and hope in the world around us and recognizing that we are all individuals and that we all view the world in a slightly different way and that doesn't make our way invalid. It actually makes us unique and special and important because we do come at the world with a very unique perspective and this does look at the power of the individual but it uses a family who are all very different and have very different personalities as its vehicle for talking about how we can find our personal identity and that was just really really wonderful. So this book really kicks off when Henry is asked by his mother to draw the most amazing thing and he doesn't know what that is so he starts asking everyone in his family what the most amazing thing is. His sister says life, his brother says the mind, and his father says the universe and Henry gets really confused because he's like well which one is it? Like everyone's saying something different but what I like is that the book explores that it's actually not something. The most amazing thing really is us because we view the world in our own way and we prioritize things differently and that makes things amazing. I also really love the author's dedication in here because part of the dedication goes to a group of school kids who must have heard an early stage of this story and gave some feedback on it and the authorists thanked them for that feedback. I think that's amazing and it's a great way to show that one these books are written for them and that they also have the ability to give feedback on books and that their feedback is incredibly valid. This book is really fun. There's a lot of great visual humor in here particularly as Henry gets more and more exasperated that his family are not giving him a concrete answer that he wants. I also really liked that while this book has a standard orientation at times during the book you have to flip it so that it's this way. Having to change the orientation of the book while reading makes for a very interactive reading experience and for me a lot of fun for kids. And also the illustrations are just so beautiful and fun and just whimsical. There's plenty of opportunities in here for discussion because all of the characters have a different viewpoint on what makes the most amazing thing. It opens up the doors for that conversation. What do you prioritize? What do you think is the most amazing thing and when you actually come to the part of the discussion where it's actually talking about us people we are amazing because of how we approach our lives and the way that we think about things. It opens up the door to talk about well okay well do you align with any of these characters in this book or do you have a completely different opinion on what the most amazing thing is and why is that? And it can be a great way to learn more about the children in the class. It can also be a great way for them to learn more about their peers. The other way that I would use this 100% is to dive into some of the vocabulary in here. There are some really rich words that you could pull out and you can actually spend some time unpacking things like vibrant and creature and adjusting. I just thought this was a really fun book. We have an inquiry unit this term on identity and I think this fits in beautifully in terms of highlighting how we all have our own individual identity and that is so valid and so important. So thank you very much to Ellen and Wen for this review copy. I had a great time reading it. In the description I will leave links to anywhere you can find the author and the illustrator as well as the publisher's website where you can find out more information about the book. In the comments I'd love to know if you've read it or if you're planning on picking it up or if you have other books that deal with similar philosophical ideas for young children. I hope that review on the world is staying safe and healthy and I will see you in my next video. Thanks so much for watching. Bye everyone.