Childrens books that deal with the issue of divorce - Book Report/Review Example

26 October Book Review: Was It the ChocolatePudding?Divorce is not an ordinary thing to tackle, all the more, for children who are confronted with such a complicated and drastically debilitating circumstance. Many childrens books today are published to give guidance to children on how to respond to divorce in the family. While there are helpful books out there that can be proven effective, there are also some which provide nothing more than just this superficial advice: you will eventually come to terms with it; there are many children like you who undergo the same circumstance.

This is downright useless considering that children, especially young children, generally know nothing about divorce. Gratefully, Was It the Chocolate Pudding?, is able to fill that gap. The beauty of this book is its comprehensive approach toward divorce. The book concentrates on one of the most constant reactions of children on divorce - they often think that they are to blame.What is unique with this book is the way the characters are presented. We normally hear divorce stories where children live with their mother while the father visits occasionally.

In the story, it is the other way around. After the couple revealed about their divorce, the children lived with their father and the mother was the one who moved away. While it may sound “out of [Student’s Last Name] 2ordinary”, this is what commonly happens in real life, which makes the book more atypical in perspective.One of the common mistakes of specialized books such as this is its failure to vary its approach according to its target readers. Some books are more technical or general in tone, such that they do not affect a considerable impact on young readers.

Conversely, this book, Was It the Chocolate Pudding?, prevents this problem from taking place by using children-friendly descriptions of terms and contexts. For example, in the book, divorce is being defined as: “Divorce is the grown-up word for when the mommies and daddies decide not to live together anymore. They tell the kids they’re sorry, and one of them moves somewhere else.” This kind of approach does not only dissuade confusion or misunderstanding, it also allows young children to develop a sensible perception about divorce, which makes the word less overwhelming.

In addition, the book also contains a lot of fascinating definitions of seemingly grown-up terms: “Explaining is when you talk to somebody about something so they can understand it, even if that somebody is a little kid”, or “Relief is the grown-up word for feeling like you’re carrying a big, heavy book bag and someone takes it off your back.” This is a great strategy of the author to remove or cart off the rather clandestine fallouts of merely giving definitions of the words. The author stresses that although kids have the ability to understand many things, complicated things or words like divorce need to be explained in terms that are intelligible to them.

I do not find any weakness in the book; as a matter of fact, I regard this book highly recommendable to kids who are confronted with divorce. ReferenceLevins, Sandra. Was It the Chocolate Pudding? Washington: Magination Press, 2006. Print.