Sunrise, green hills, fresh breeze. A group of children each carried with colorful fabrics, like banners, and ran up the hill. This is the beginning of the story, what exactly are they doing? Are they celebrating something?
The book says,
๐๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ง๐ฆ๐ต๐ต๐ช ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ง๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฌ๐บ!
What does this mean?
Turning to the next page, these children are holding different materials and tools, talking to each other. It turns out that these children are making their own hot air balloons!
Look, the little boy spread the fabric and immediately cut it with scissors; the other little boy wearing glasses next to him, however, drew a sketch on white paper and sat next to the fabric, thinking hard, with scissors on his side; the little girl with blonde hair did not touch the fabric first, but followed her sketch in knitting the small basket under the hot air balloon; the little girl wearing a pink skirt and red leggings folded the fabric into small squares and slept on the small squares of fabric, resting for a while, perhaps she could figure out the look of the hot air balloon she wanted in her dream!
Soon, we all saw the children making their own hot air balloons in their own way, and still, their destination was the great unknown.
Some children like to work alone, some like to find friends to help them work with each other; some children are quietly testing their favourite colours and patterns; some children like to squeal and discuss, to speak out all the ideas in their heads, to understand themselves through sharing with others. Some children liked to test all the possibilities and were late to start working; some liked to make precise hot air balloons in a scientific way; some liked to create different mushroom hot air balloons in a creative artistic way…
Finally, a teacher came among them to explain the safety measures for lifting and lowering hot air balloons and what to look for on the journey.
The book says,
๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ถ๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ. ๐๐ถ๐ต ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ถ๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด. ๐๐ฐ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ด ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ!
The first half of the book highlights the different qualities and talents that each child is born with, encouraging each one to be an important part of the sky, and each one is indispensable. The second half of the book encourages each of them to be friendly, compassionate, and generous, and they can be helpful, considerate, and brave too!
Finally, the author encourages each of the children to remember who they are and that this is the life they live. When you can give to others, give as much as you can. The world needs you to be yourself and live your life to the fullest!
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐น๐ฑ ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ ๐๐ต๐ผ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ฒ
Author: Joanna Gaines
Illustrator: Julianna Swaney