Title: Sun Kisses, Moon Hugs
Author: Susan Schaefer Bernardo
Illustrator: Courtenay Fletcher
Genre: Children’s Fiction
Publisher: Inner Flower Child Books
Publishing date: 1st May, 2017
Pages: 32
My Rating: 3/5 stars
*e-copy received from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
Synopsis:
Sun Kisses, Moon Hugs is a beautiful new book with a simple but powerful message: love last forever.
Lyrical writing and delightful illustrations provide perfect bedtime reading for any child. The book is also ideal for supporting children through grief, separation anxiety, divorce, illness or other traumatic situations, by wrapping them in a warm and comforting emotional security blanket and opening a dialogue on the nature of love.
Even when loved ones cannot be with us, we can feel their presence through our deep connections to the natural world.
My Take:
All that I want to say about the book is already said in the summary. I loved the lyrical writing in this and the illustrations were very colorful and detailed.
The only reason I gave it 3 stars is because of the ARC copy I received. I usually am very thankful for the ARCs I receive and ignore few grammatical errors because it’s an uncorrected copy but sending out a book which is difficult to read is obviously going to alter the reading experience and will affect the review.
This was the case with most of the book.
I don’t know if all the ARCs sent out were like this or it was just my copy’s problem but it was surely irritating enough for me to reduce the rating. If not for the format issue, it would have easily been a 4 or even 4.5.
I was so disappointed by my copy that I couldn’t enjoy the wonderful writing.
That being said it is a beautiful little lyrical tale about how distance doesn’t mean that you don’t love someone and there are ways to remind people of how much we love them even when they are far from us.
Why would I pick it up?
For the beautiful writing and the illustrations. ❤
I have already read many fake-boyfriend-for-the-sake-of-job-or-family kind of books so the plotline wasn’t that intruiguing to me but the writing, the relationship growth, the character development made up for what the plotline lacked in originality.
One of the things that I liked about this book was that that it places equal importance of showing compassion to others as well as oneself. People stress over how we conduct ourselves with others but how we conduct ourselves is often overlooked. The author emphasis enough about understanding oneself, being compassionate and staying away from self harm.
This book delves into how compassion, empathy, sympathy, kindness are all important virtues. In a broader sense they are one and the same, if there’s one of these qualities in you, the other finds the way. The exact definitions make them different and that is what is talked about in the book and how to achieve is delved into.
Now you gotta make them stay together to let their love bloom. Voila! No rooms available. Our soon-to-be couple has to share a room. (How inconvenient!) This part was the generic go-to when you have to put the leads in the same room. A little imagination here would’ve been better. This was the only part the had me like- Not again. -_-
Another cliche- Castor’s true love, his wife, died. So, now not wanting to get his herat broken and not having gotten over his wife he dates casually. Changing girls and getting the image of a player for Leia but can she stop falling for him? Obviously not. That’s not how love works. You have to go against all your common sense, battle all your intelligence, and listen to your heart. If you don’t do this, then my friend, you are not in love. (Reality!) 😛
