Tag Archives: positive attitude

Book Review: The Very Fairy Princess: Sparkles in the Snow – by Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton

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Book: The Very Fairy Princess: 
        Sparkles in the Snow
Authors: Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton
Illustrator: Christine Davenier
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Date: October 15, 2013
Genre: children's picture book
Pages: 32
Price: $18 - $20
My rating: delightful story that will encourage young readers

The Very Fairy Princess: Sparkles in the Snow was written by mother-daughter team, the famous Julie Andrews and her accomplished daughter Emma Walton Hamilton.

Geraldine is a little girl who believes in her heart that she is a fairy princess. She wears her tiara all the time and is cheerful and helpful (most of the time) because she has a SPARKLY feeling inside.

Gerry is excited because they are having a Winter Wonderland Festival at school. The best part is the concert when she gets to sing with the chorus.  She does everything she can to impress their music teacher so he will be persuaded  to select her as the one to sing the solo. When he announces that there is a professional singer coming to be the soloist Gerry is very disappointed.

The day of the concert is a snowy one – just right for a Winter Wonderland – and that cheers up the fairy princess. She and her family get ready to go to the school as she warms up her voice. When they finally arrive through the storm the music teacher, Mr. Higginbottom, tells them the storm has prevented the soloist from making it to the concert. He has to make a decision. That’s when Gerry discovers she’s forgotten her shoes! (She does something very creative, which, apparently, is something the author, Julie Andrews, did as a child to remedy a similar situation.)

Here are some of Geraldine’s rules of life as a fairy princess:

  • try to spread joy and wonder whenever and wherever you can
  • take a frown and turn it upside down
  • always be well prepared
  • always be happy to lend a hand in a crisis

The Very Fairy Princess: Sparkles in the Snow is entertaining, realistic, and funny in the right places. It’s easy to read and holds the reader’s attention. Children will be encouraged to believe in themselves and to have a positive attitude. (Personally, I believe this book is especially helpful to little girls who often feel insignificant.)

The illustrations by Christine Davenier are delightful and so precisely capture the heart of the story. Through the descriptive artwork the reader is given a rounded-out view of the story so that the main character is understood even better.

You can find The Very Fairy Princess: Sparkles in the Snow by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton on my BUY THE BOOK page.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

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A Thought for Today

Today I am trying to get some catch-up done in my home before I start my shift at Dad’s, but I wanted to leave you with something to think about for the day.  If I have already shared this I don’t remember when and I hope you’ll enjoy it again.

Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work.  – William Arthur Ward

And from the Word of God:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything is worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on those things.Philippians 4:8

 

Do you have a quote or verse or reminder for yourself to help you keep on the positive side?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

 

Do you get your memories out of the trash heap?

I am trying to come up with a topic to write about.   Sometimes it is there waiting for me, more often it has gone into hiding.  This is the latter.

What, oh what, shall I write about that will be worth sharing?   hmmm

When trying to think of something I sift through my day, my week, summer vacation … whatever is filed away in my memory bank that is not under too much thinking and filing and stashing. You know, what we do with our memories … put them on a shelf not too far back to bring out and enjoy later, or file them away for safe keeping for an indefinite length of time, or just toss them onto the heap of regrets and disappointments to dig through when there is more time to do so.  There should never be time to dig through the trash heap, unless to learn something, but never enough to wile it away there.

Do you happen to remember a children’s TV program called Fraggle Rock? (It’s still in reruns in some places.)  There was the wise Marjory trash heap that would receive the occasional visitor seeking advice.   Notice I said occasional.   For good reason.  Don’t go there.   Mostly the trash heap consists of smelly yucky garbage, the mental trash heap being one of embarrassing moments, wrong thoughts, mistakes, regrets, failures, bad stuff … not a nice place to expend one’s brain power.

So, why did I bring that up?  Because too often we tend to waste time thinking back over things that cannot be changed, cannot be fixed, cannot be forgotten if we keep digging them out to review again and again.  Best to leave them alone to compost into a life lesson.

Our experiences have a way of changing us, affecting how we think or ‘see’ things, bringing us to new understanding, and often it is by the fact of their just being part of our living.  Stored away in our memory, and left alone to decay into what comes next … they become a part of what makes us who we are.   If not stored away properly they can affect us negatively — through our constant rehashing of them, not allowing ourselves to heal from the memories,  instead taking them out for our private pity parties and our public displays of “you don’t know what my life is/was like.”  But if not allowing the stench to touch us, not going back and digging it up to agonize over again and again, instead dealing with it in good and healthy ways, we allow ourselves to heal and grow and mature in mind and emotions.

So, what am I writing about?  It seems I am saying … stay out of the trash heap, and compost instead.   🙂  Do not allow your past to hold you there, to hinder your walk and progress in life, or to prevent you from believing.  Move out of that place of powerlessness, that desert of despair, that tunnel of torment.   Walk out!   Look up and walk out.

The One who has a plan and a purpose for your life made you to be the creative person you are.   Use that gift to its fullest and crawl out of the garbage heap!   Aspire.  Believe.  Create.  Dream.  Explore.  Fly.  Grow.  Hope.  Inspire.  Jump in.  Keep going – and … LIVE your Life!

What has helped you to keep going, not allowing Marjory the trash heap’s stink to permeate your life?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂