🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
The Virtuepops: How to Value Virtue Amid Covid19, Stress and Suffering is a bit of a strange offering from Frances Angelina. It’s not a children’s book in the classic sense of a children’s book – it’s a little bit more than that. What Angelina has done is combine a storyline, poems, songs and pictures with an educational commentary for parents, carers and teachers. The Virtuepops is a book that’s been written to read aloud, and while I admit that I didn’t actually do that, I can imagine that it would be an almost magical experience for a small child.
The Virtuepops is split into 12 Acts, and has over a hundred chapters. That may seem somewhat overwhelming to the parent looking for a quick Gruffalo-esque book to read to their child at bed-time, but don’t be put off. Each ‘Act’ is only around thirty pages long, maybe forty at the most. Each chapter within the ‘Acts’ are short, some consisting purely of beautiful illustrations designed by Angelina for the child to colour in. She actually states in the (rather long) foreword that colouring in is a mindful practice that is relaxing for both the child and the care giver. Some pages purely have a verse or poem. And then some pages are simply full of notes for the parent, carer or teacher of the child; ideas for games or suggestions of how to practice the ‘Virtues’ in every day life. She wants you, the parent, carer or teacher, to engage your child in discussion – to make them see the best of themselves instead of the worst parts. It’s a commendable goal, and I hope that upon reading this beautiful book to their children, the caregivers are able to enact this.
Angelina describes the story of The Virtuepops: How to Value Virtue Amid Covid19, Stress and Suffering as a ‘high-fantasy-fiction story’, where she’s placed the characters, the Virtuepops in a beautiful setting. The story begins in Michael (the narrator) and his brother Walker’s grandma’s home, where their uncle Stevo is playing in the snow with them. The story is full of sweet, loving and completely caring language, perfect for the little ones.
It’s an adorable book, if not a bit too long and overwhelming on first glance.
S. A
This book was originally reviewed on Reedsy Discovery as part of their reviewer program. You can read the original review here.
The Virtuepops is available to buy by clicking on it’s name.